The Hardscrabble deposit lies within the Barkerville Terrane of the Omineca Belt. The Barkerville Terrane is in thrust contact with Triassic Quesnellia Terrane rocks to the west and Hadrynian to Lower Paleozoic Cariboo Terrane rocks to the east. The Barkerville Terrane in this region is underlain by the dominantly metasedimentary rocks of the Hadrynian to Lower Paleozoic Snowshoe Group. In this area the Snowshoe Group comprises limestone, phyllite and quartzite. These rocks have been regionally metamorphosed to greenschist facies.

The occurrence is found in a sequence of Snowshoe Group rocks consisting of fissile quartzite, relatively massive quartzite, calcareous phyllite, relatively pure phyllite and sandy limestone. Mineralization occurs in quartz-sulphide and quartz-carbonate scheelite veins and veinlets which are associated with faults and joints or which follow the schistosity of the enclosing rocks. The three types of mineralized veins are a gold-bearing lenticular quartz vein, two quartz-sulphide veins which apparently do not carry gold and scheelite bearing quartz veinlets or stringers. Sulphide veins are composed of quartz, pyrite, sphalerite and galena. Scheelite-bearing veinlets occur both crosscutting and following the bedding and schistosity of the enclosing rocks. These veins contain quartz, ankerite, calcite, scheelite and traces of sphalerite and galena. In general the mineralized veins are discontinuous and widely spaced.

A total of 9963 kilograms of tungsten was produced from this dposit in 1939 and 1941. In 1937, about 90 tonnes of ore was produced for testing puposes.