The Iron King-Iron Queen occurrence is located along Nestor Creek, south of Nicola Lake.

The area lies in a north trending, fault-bounded belt of interbedded volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group. The occurrence is situated in the contact zone between volcaniclastic rocks and intercalated argillite to the southwest, and plagioclase-augite porphyritic pyroclastic and epiclastic breccia, conglomerate, tuff, sandstone and shale to the east.

A limonite deposit is exposed in a deep, 100 metre wide gulch. Trenching (1915 or earlier) indicated an approximate length of 610 metres and width of 15 to 60 metres.

A grab sample assayed 52 per cent iron, 0.6 per cent sulphur and 3.7 per cent silica. A low grade representative sample assayed 22.0 per cent iron, 0.27 per cent sulphur and 51.5 per cent silica (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1915).

Work History

The occurrence was first identified in the early 1900s.

In 1966, Nicola Lake Mining Co. Ltd. completed a program of soil and rock sampling, geological mapping, trenching and an induced polarization survey on the area as the Mouse claims. This work identified six target areas for future work. In 1968, a further program of geological mapping and a 17.0 line-kilometre ground magnetic survey were completed.