The Silverton occurrence is situated on the south side of Sidina Mountain, 21 kilometres north-northeast of Hazelton.
The area is underlain by hornfelsed sediments of the Middle Jurassic to Upper Cretaceous Bowser assemblage. Granite and monzonite of the Late Cretaceous Bulkley Intrusions intrude Bowser-Skeena sediments. The intrusive stock has an elongated shape measuring 4 kilometres from northwest to southeast and approximately 2 kilometres across. Localized trace pyrite and lesser arsenopyrite and sphalerite are found within the stock. Gold-mineralized quartz veins occur at the southeastern margin of the pluton cupola. Multiple generations of porphyritic monzonite and porphyritic rhyodacite dikes occur along the metamorphic aureole and within the surrounding sediments.
At the Silverton occurrence, the hostrock is primarily a small (approximately 600 metres in diameter), medium grained intrusive stock of granite to granodiorite composition of the Late Cretaceous Bulkley Intrusions. The granitic rocks intrude variably hornfelsed clastic sediments of the Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous Bowser Lake Group, which include argillite, siltstone and sandstone. The layered rocks are folded into a north-trending syncline in the area of the showings.
A series of narrow, gold-silver-bearing quartz veins are hosted by a small granodiorite plug and adjacent hornfelsed clastic sedimentary rocks. Minor molybdenite mineralization is present in molybdenite-pyrite pink feldspar veinlets in the intrusion. A rusty hornfels, with well developed pyrite-pyrrhotite pods, is developed in the sediments adjacent to the intrusion. The gold-silver mineralization is found in several quartz-arsenopyrite-pyrite-sphalerite-galena-tetrahedrite veins up to 0.3 metre in width. The highest assay was from a 10 centimetre-wide sample that assayed 30.2 grams per tonne gold, 78.2 grams per tonne silver and 21.2 per cent arsenic; grab samples assayed as high as 8.36 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 17290).
The Silverton claim group was staked on the south slope of Cariboo Mountain by Long and McBain sometime prior to 1911. Early prospecting identified extensive, though scattered, mineralization.
In 1986, Paul Huel staked the Raven claims over the area of the former Silverton claim group and conducted a small sampling program. Between 1987 and 1988, Noranda Mining and Exploration Incorporated conducted two exploration programs on the Raven claims, including prospecting and geological and geochemical surveying. Further work was recommended but never completed and the property was allowed to lapse.
The ground lay dormant until 2005, when Cadre Capital Incorporated staked new claims over the Sidina Creek area and the Nine Mile Mountain area to the south. The following year, Golden Sabre Resources optioned the claims and carried out a limited exploration program of rock sampling and soil grid geochemistry.
In 2009, Rio Minerals Limited started a gold exploration and evaluation program on the Sidina property on behalf of TAD Capital Corporation (later known as TAD Mineral Exploration Limited). Exploration consisted of rock sampling (47 samples), 30 metres of hand trenching, geological mapping, grid soil geochemistry (151 samples) and 15 kilometres of ground magnetometer geophysical surveying. Hand trenching and sampling were carried out over historic mineralized areas on the property. Geological mapping focused on an area along West Creek and selected areas of poor rock exposure. Soil sampling was conducted over a grid that extended eastward from West Creek and covered the former Silverton mine.
By 2012, claims to the west and north of the claim containing the Silverton occurrence had been dropped and the Sidina property was expanded to include additional claims covering the Nine Mile Mountain area to the south, formerly held by Cadre Capital. That year, Rio Minerals Limited conducted 2250 metres of grid surveys and collected 94 soil samples on a grid situated immediately north of the 2009 soil sampling grid.
DeCoors Mining Corp. has been conducting exploration in the SID project area since 2014. A Mobile Metal Ions (MMI) soil survey in 2014 found anomalous gold, copper and silver. In 2016, the property was optioned to Garibaldi Resources Corp. In 2016, DeCoors took a total of 130 soil samples and 42 rock samples. In 2017, DeCoors continued work and completed geophysical and soil geochemical surveys consisting of 177 MMI soil samples, 3.42 line kilometres of induced polarization (IP) survey on the SID block, and 4 line kilometres of IP survey on the American Boy block.
In 1981, 143 tonnes of ore produced 250,655 grams of silver, 415 grams of gold, 9168 kilograms of lead and 13,066 kilograms of zinc.
