The Paw showing outcrops along the northeast bank of Bell Creek, 1.2 to 1.6 kilometres northwest of Highway 3 on the northwest side of the Similkameen River and 33 kilometres south-southwest of Princeton.
Exploration work has been conducted in the Bell Creek area since 1900. Most of this work has been focused on a couple of showings near the eastern boundary of Manning Provincial Park, just north of Eastgate, British Columbia. The Redstar (092HSE067) has received the most exploration attention, although the Knob Hill (092HSE097), Golden Crown (092HSE191) and Paw have also been explored. Several adits were excavated on the better showings by early workers, extending up to 332 metres in length. Between 1967 and 1970, Spheno Mines Ltd. carried out an exploration program over the Knob Hill and Red Star claim area. Cominco Ltd. optioned the claims covering the Red Star occurrence in 1980 and conducted a comprehensive exploration program for volcanogenic massive sulphide deposits. In 1986 and 1987, Bukara Resources Ltd. completed additional exploration including 1100 metres of trenching, focused on gold-bearing pyritiferous schists in the Red Star horizon. In 1990, the Red Star occurrence and surrounding area were restaked by Pamicon Developments Ltd. in 1990. In 1992, Westmin Resources Ltd. optioned the claims from Pamicon Developments Ltd. and conducted two phases of comprehensive exploration. In 1993 and 1994, exploration was continued by Westmin Resources Ltd.
The property is underlain by Upper Triassic Nicola Group volcanics, which consists of a varied assemblage of volcanic flows, pyroclastics and related clastics with minor limestone. These rocks are affected by greenschist facies metamorphism in a northwest trending belt, 5 to 6 kilometres wide, that parallels the eastern margin of the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Eagle Plutonic Complex granodiorite. The resulting chloritic and sericitic schists strike from 165 to 180 degrees, with an average dip of 65 degrees west. These rocks are unconformably overlain by the Eocene Princeton Group, comprised of basaltic and andesitic flows, pyroclastics and agglomerates.
About 0.8 kilometre northwest of the upper adits on the Red Star claim (092HSE067), mineralization occurs in white quartz veins in a foliated, relatively massive and uniform greenstone unit that stratigraphically overlies schistose metasediments. Carbonate- epidote alteration is associated with these quartz veins. Abundant epidote also occurs along foliation planes. Magnetite is a distinctive feature of this greenstone unit and varies from disseminated grains to seams and lenses.
The mineralized quartz veins outcrop in an area 300 metres long, on the east side of Bell Creek, just south of overlying Princeton Group volcanics. The veins are up to 0.5 metre wide and occur as conformable seams or as crosscutting veins.
The veins contain tetrahedrite, malachite, bornite, and chalcopyrite in selvages. Disseminated chalcocite and local coatings of azurite are also reported. A grab sample from a trench assayed 1.92 grams per tonne gold, 19.5 grams per tonne silver and 9.23 per cent copper (Assessment Report 21491, page 16, sample 95812). Eight grab samples of quartz vein material from various other trenches contained between nil and 1.58 grams per tonne gold, 1.2 to 16 grams per tonne silver and 0.03 to 5.26 per cent copper (Assessment Report 21491, Figure 5).
