The Savona Gold (Last Chance) occurrence is located on the northeast side of the Hamilton Creek valley, approximately 800 metres north of the north end of Vidette Lake.
The Vidette Lake area is underlain by mafic volcanic rocks of the Upper Triassic Nicola Group exposed in a window eroded through flat-lying Miocene sedimentary rocks and plateau basalts of the Chilcotin Group. The uppermost Chilcotin Group strata form an extensive layer of plateau basalts of the Chasm Formation, underlain by volcanic ash and fluviatile and lacustrine sedimentary strata of the Deadman River Formation, which occupy a northwest-trending Miocene channel. The Nicola rocks are intruded by biotite-hornblende granodiorite plugs that are possibly related to the Triassic to Jurassic Thuya Batholith. Nicola rocks are generally augite andesites commonly altered to chlorite-rich or calcareous greenstones; however, contact metamorphism has developed garnet-diopside-actinolite skarn or tactite adjacent to the intrusive rocks. Feldspar porphyry dikes are common at the Savona mine.
The occurrence is located approximately 800 metres northwest of the Vidette (MINFILE 092P 086) mine and along the same general trend. Three northwest-striking, east-dipping veins (Sylvanite, Yarvi and Argentite) have been documented (Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 179). The veins are, generally, composed mainly of quartz and carbonate (calcite) with minor pyrite, chalcopyrite and galena and vary from 0.20 to 1.35 metres in thickness. Sericite alteration is also reported.
The Sylvanite vein averages 60 centimetres wide and has been traced, by underground diamond drilling, for approximately 240 metres along strike to the northwest. A possible continuation of the vein, along strike, has been exposed by opencuts in several locations over a length of approximately 1 kilometre.
The Argentite vein varies from 20 centimetres wide on surface to 45 centimetres wide in underground workings and has been correlated with the Stephenette vein of the nearby Vidette (MINFILE 092P 086) mine.
The Yarvi vein varies from 20 centimetres wide on surface to 1.35 metres wide in underground workings and drillholes.
In 1936, underground sampling is reported to have yielded up to 21.2 grams per tonne gold and 13.7 grams per tonne silver over 85 centimetres from near a shaft on the ‘exploration‘ level (Property File - Savona Gold Mines Ltd. [1936-01-01]: Prospect Plan Map of Savona Gold Mines).
In 1983, underground sampling yielded up to 0.9 gram per tonne gold and 2.1 grams per tonne silver from a calcite vein (Assessment Report 12670).
The first record of work was in the 1930s when the property was explored by several pits, shafts, drifts, three adits and diamond drilling. Underground workings are reported to total approximately 421 metres on three levels. In 1983, some of the underground workings were rehabilitated and washed, and nine samples were taken in an underground sampling. A soil geochemical program (38 samples) was also undertaken. In 1986, Booker Gold Explorations completed a program of ground geophysical surveys, prospecting and geological mapping on the area.