The Merryth deposit is located on the south west shore of the East Sooke Peninsula, due south of Iron Mine Hill.

The area is underlain by the Eocene Sooke Gabbro, which forms the basement of the Metchosin Volcanics and is composed of coarse- grained gabbro with about equal parts of bytownite and diopside and about 5 per cent olivine. dikes of leucogabbro contain up to 80 per cent bytownite. Local agmatization, amphibolitization and mineralization of the gabbro apparently occurred later along shear zones.

The main altered zone, made up of hornblende and masses of unaltered gabbro, trends up the hill from the shore at about 025 degrees for 460 metres. The deposit is divided into two zones based on a horizontal offset of 15 to 30 metre which is a result of crossfaulting. South of the crossfault the deposit has been called the Merryth zone and to the north it has been called the Iron Mountain zone. The deposit is generally known as the Merryth.

The main mineralization of the Merryth zone is confined within two parallel shears about 30 metres apart. Erratic sulphide mineralization occurs in the footwall and to minor extent in the hangingwall. The hangingwall contains large amounts of magnetite as replacement grains and as fracture-filling stringers. A small quantity of magnetite occurs in the mineral zone proper. The mineral zone contains minor massive replacement by pyrrhotite but the predominant form of mineralization is the filling of small veinlets and cracks by pyrrhotite, pyrite and late chalcopyrite. The relative proportions of chalcopyrite to pyrrhotite are greater in the wallrock than in the main portion of the zone, with dissemination being the most typical form of sulphide mineralization. The Iron Mountain zone, north of the crossfault, has been examined along its margins and at these points it consists mainly of magnetite and pyrrhotite.

In 1951, programs of geological mapping, diamond drilling and ground geophysical surveys were completed on the area as the June, Lorna, Moffat and Pac claims. One of several diamond-drill holes put down on the Merryth zone in 1951 graded 0.46 per cent copper over 42.7 metres (Chubb, 1951). A grab sample assayed 3.43 grams per tonne gold and 0.2 per cent copper (Supplementary Sampling by Huestis, Kenneco and Cooke, undated).

In 1971, MacSan Exploration completed a program of airborne geophysical surveys and rock, silt and soil sammpling on the area as the EMDYK, K2 and K4 claims.