The Cummins Creek Veins occurrence is located between Troitsa and Whitesail lakes, about 97 kilometres south of the community of Houston.

The Cummins Creek Veins area is largely underlain by andesitic tuffs of the Lower to Middle Jurassic Hazelton Group and by tuffs and heterolithic breccias of the Eocene Ootsa Lake Group. Some siltstones, greywackes and tuffaceous sandstones belonging to the Hazelton Group also occur on the property. Diorite dikes and plugs and granite plugs, possibly related to the Late Cretaceous Bulkley Plutonic Suite, intrude the volcanics.

Locally intense hydrothermal activity has resulted in a number of showings exhibiting hydrothermal alteration, quartz veining and mineralization. Eight zones originally recognized in the area include: Discovery (093E 185), Zinc Creek (093E 139), Moraine (093E 186), Chalco Creek (093E 138), Wolverine (093E 135), Blitz Creek (093E 136), Blitz Knob (093E 136) and Cummins Creek. More recent showings include: Dexter (093E 140), Flare (093E 137), Ice (093E 135) and Blitz North (093E 136).

The Cummins Creek vein system consists of numerous quartz veins and proximal vein float boulders over an area of 1 by 3 kilometres. Veins are up to 1 metre wide, and locally occur in zones of parallel veins with intervening wallrock up to 2.5 metres wide. The veins can be traced along strike for about 100 metres, striking 330-350 degrees. Alteration is subtle, consisting of narrow bleached or silicified envelopes within larger zones of weak to moderate calcite-chlorite. Veins crop out primarily in Cummins Creek and along its steep-sided creek gully between 1200 and 1400 metres elevation. Due to extensive overburden cover along the valley sides away from the creek, there is a reasonable likelihood that many veins beyond the creek are not exposed.

The Cummins Creek vein system was first documented in the early 1980s. High-grade float samples found by Union Carbide in 1982 were traced to a supposed source at 1290 metres elevation in the creek bed, where a banded, multiphase vuggy quartz vein was located. A second, similar vein was located below this at 1260 metres elevation, where it crops out along the creek bed. At 1080 metres elevation, a zone of narrower quartz veins cropping out over a 10-metre wide zone yielded grab samples with much higher gold and lower silver values.

The higher gold:silver ratio in the veins 210 metres below the upper vein may be of exploration significance. The upper vein was resampled in 1987, returning a value of 4.29 grams per tonne gold and 2605 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 17654). Prospecting north of the creek in 1991 resulted in the discovery of an area of subcrop with samples returning up to 0.74 gram per tonne gold and 76.6 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 20817); in addition, samples were very anomalous in molybdenum, with values of 0.27 per cent.

The system is sulphide-poor. Pyrite is the most common sulphide, consisting of up to 5 per cent of the rock in rare instances. Chalcopyrite is present and visually appears to be the most common sulphide associated with samples containing precious metals. Argentite has been reported from at least five localities and is found as small dark grains scattered in quartz. Pyrargyrite has been reported from a microscopic examination of a high-grade sample containing 10,217 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 17654). Galena and sphalerite are present, but rare. In the gossan zone, located at the mouth of the tributary into Cummins Creek, seams and veinlets of massive pyrite are present.

Regional exploration for porphyry copper deposits in the Whitesail Lake area by Kennco, Bethlehem Copper and others dates back to the 1950s.This work resulted in the discovery of the Huckleberry copper-molybdenum deposit (093E 037) in 1962. In 1968, American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO) and Silver Standard Mines discovered the Ox Lake porphyry copper deposit (093E 004), just nine kilometres north of Troitsa Peak.

Detailed exploration on the south side of Troitsa Peak area began in the early 1980s (Assessment Report 10875). Following an initial program of prospecting in 1981, Union Carbide Canada Ltd. in 1982 initiated a comprehensive program of geological mapping, rock and grid-controlled soil sampling, on the Troitsa Peak North and South claim groups. This work resulted in the discovery of eight showings. Mineralized quartz veins and quartz float in Cummins Creek yielded spectacular assays of up to 45.9 grams per tonne gold and 10,042 grams per tonne silver. Petrographic examination of the vein material revealed the presence of native silver and argentite as well as a form of molybdenum sulphide (jordisite). After the success of this program, Canamax Resources optioned the property in 1983 and completed follow-up soil geochemical surveys (Assessment Reports 11512, 11709).

Limited prospecting and rock sampling by Marley Mines in the southern part of the property between 1984 and 1986 resulted in the discovery of the Camp Creek, Root and Straight Creek gold-silver zones on the Play claim group (093E 096). These discoveries extended the area of known mineralization a further 4.5 kilometres south of the previously described Cummins Creek veins.

Tom Richards and Alpine Exploration Corp. carried out several prospecting and silt and rock sampling programs in the 1980s. In 1987, Alpine Exploration Corp. completed a limited program of rock and silt sampling and geological mapping, followed by a VLF survey and drill program later in the year (Assessment Reports 17654, 17792). The drill program focused on quartz veins exposed by trenching northwest of the Moraine zone, and included 12 diamond-drill holes totalling 921 metres.

In 1990-91, reconnaissance programs of prospecting and rock sampling were carried out by Richards on the Discovery zone, east of Troitsa Peak, and in the Cummins Creek area (Assessment Reports 20817, 21720); the 1991 program resulted in the discovery of quartz veins about 300 metres north of Cummins Creek with up to 0.276 per cent molybdenum as well as anomalous gold and silver. In 1995, Alpine Exploration completed mapping and a small soil survey south of outcropping porphyry-style mineralization in Porphyry Creek, an east-flowing tributary of Cummins Creek (Assessment Report 24387). The soil survey delineated a molybdenum anomaly in an overburden covered area south of the main Cummins Creek veins.

In 1999, Holden and Lord collected quartz crystals from veins in Cummins Creek for mineral specimens as well as a few rock samples for assay (Assessment Report 26060).

In 2005, Paget Resources Corp. conducted a four-day reconnaissance exploration program on their Troitsa property consisting of geological mapping and rock and chip sampling program over the majority of the showings on the Troitsa Property (Assessment Report 28028). A total of 76 rock samples were taken from outcrop and float. This program outlined several target areas for more detailed work; an additional nine core samples were also taken. Samples from the Cummins Creek veins yielded up to 1.835 grams per tonne gold, 291.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.353 per cent copper, 0.173 per cent lead and 0.204 per cent zinc (Samples B386260 and B386311; McRoberts, S.S. (2009-05-01): Summary Report on the Troitsa Property).

In 2007, Paget Resources Corp. (Assessment Report 29218) flew a property-scale airborne magnetic survey over the Troitsa property to aid in interpretation of the geology as well as identify major zones of magnetite-destructive alteration. In 2009, geological mapping and the collection of 94 rock samples and three silt samples were completed on various zones and targets including: Moraine zone, Dexter zone, Wolverine zone, Blitz North zone, Flare zone and the Porphyry Creek zone.

The Troitsa property was visited on two days in 2012 when two traverses were completed. The first traverse began on the ridge to the west of the Moraine zone, dropped into the valley to the south to investigate the Flare and Blitz North zones, then up the drainage to the Wolverine zone and finally to the Moraine zone. The second traverse began on the ridge to the northeast of the Cummins Creek zone, dropped into Cummins Creek and followed it south to the confluence with Porphyry Creek. Porphyry Creek was followed upstream to the west extent of the Porphyry zone. Four new rock samples were taken over the two day period; these included one from the Flare zone, two from the Wolverine zone and one from Cummins Creek. Samples from Flare, Wolverine were significantly elevated in gold.