The Last Chance showings are located approximately 33 kilometres northeast of Cache Creek.
Showings of cinnabar occur in an andesitic to basaltic breccia that underlies a heterolithic conglomerate where hematitic alteration frequently stains the rocks ochre red. Clasts in the conglomerate are chert, felsic intrusives and minor volcanics. Intermediate to mafic dikes occur with frequent rusty quartz-calcite stringers. A cinnabar-bearing dolomitic vein occurs, apparently crosscutting the dike units. In general, strongly fractured areas in all rock types have pervasive carbonate alteration with secondary hematite alteration forming prominent red bluffs. Banded carbonate and chalcedony veins displaying open space cavities occur near volcanic dikes.
The Last Chance main showing is in a large opencut along a fracture zone ranging from 15 to 43 centimetres wide. The exposed rock is altered to carbonate. The fracture zone strikes 015 degrees, dips 45 degrees northwest and is strongly jointed with thin stringers of dolomite, with films of cinnabar along the joints. The showing was sampled and assayed 0.04 per cent mercury (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 249). Tetrahedrite with malachite and azurite was found in dolomite in dumps from an opencut southeast of the main opencut. In 1987, rock sampling from the main Last Chance showing yielded a high of 0.15 per cent mercury with several samples in the 0.01 to 0.05 per cent range (Assessment Report 17416).
The first reference made to the mercury showings was in Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 249 (fieldwork from 1939-1944), in which the Last Chance group of two claims were stated to be owned by J. Smith and T.R. Hardie of Red Lake. A number of cuts were put in.
The next period of recorded work was between 1987 and 1989, when Minnova Inc. conducted grid preparation and line-cutting, geological mapping, rock and soil sampling and VLF and magnetometer surveying and dug 10 trenches totaling 118 metres. In 1989, rock sample 16815 assayed 0.5 per cent mercury, 3.5 grams per tonne silver and 0.437 per cent copper (Assessment Report 20000).
In 1991, Minnova Inc. completed line-cutting and a soil sampling program.
