The Tennessee occurrence is located on the north side of Bobbie Burns Creek, approximately 29 kilometres south-southwest of Golden. The claims are located on what was known locally as "Spruce Tree Creek", which apparently joins Bobbie Burns Creek at approximately 1524 metres elevation.

The area is underlain by slates, schists and quartzites of the Hadrynian Horsethief Creek Group.

Locally, a 0.6 to 3-metre wide quartz vein strikes north- west and dips 50 degrees, approximately conformable with the enclosing host rocks. The vein contains narrow seams of chalcopyrite occurring at infrequent intervals. "The vein carries values in gold and silver" (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1916, page K188). Mineralization near the portal of the adit occurs over a width of 45 centimetres and has been traced over an approximate strike length of 150 metres.

In 1980, six select samples of mineralized vein material, from the lower adit area, yielded from 1.1 to 12.0 per cent copper (Property File - First Nuclear Corp. [1980-01-01]: 1980 Summary Report on Project 11, Spillimacheen). Silver and gold assays were not reported.

In 1984, four select samples of the mineralized vein yielded an average of 6.01 per cent copper and 0.7 gram per tonne gold (Property File - C. Dearin [1996-09-29]: Valuation of the Vermont Project).

In 1916 and 1917, a 5-metre drift or adit was driven. A small amount (unknown tonnage) of ore was extracted from near the portal of the adit and shipped to Trail, where it graded 11.92 per cent copper (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1917, page F143).

In 1966, Westgate Mines prospected and sampled the area as the Bend claims. In 1979, Norcen Energy Resources Ltd. optioned the holdings of Cochrane Oil and Gas Ltd. between Vermont and Warren Creeks and carried out a program of geological mapping, prospecting, geochemical soil sampling, geophysics and diamond drilling. In 1980, Norcen continued to work on the same area with a program of geological mapping, regional and detailed geochemistry, geophysics and diamond drilling. In 1982 and 1983, additional programs were carried out on these claims by Cochrane Oil and Gas and Bluesky Oil and Gas Ltd., including diamond drilling. In 1979 and 1980, the First Nuclear Corporation staked a substantial number of claims, from McMurdo Creek at the north end to the northern boundary of the Cochrane ground just north of the Ruth Vermont Mines, following the results of a 1979 stream sediment geochemical survey. Field work in 1980 included geological mapping, prospecting and geochemistry. In 1981, the First Nuclear Corporation continued exploration of the DEB claims with geological mapping, sampling and prospecting. At the end of this program the size of the claim group was reduced to 376 units covering the favourable and anomalous stratigraphy. In 1982, MineQuest Exploration Associates Ltd., working on contract to Samim Canada Ltd., further explored the DEB claims, principally through geological mapping, prospecting, reconnaissance soil geochemistry, mostly on widespread contour lines, and rock-sampling and trenching. In 1983, work by Samim saw 7.7 kilometres of IP surveys completed; a total of 493 metres drilled in 11 BQ holes; and 1096 soil, 227 rock and 27 silt samples collected.