The Davies (Elizabeth) occurrence is located on a hillside above a north-flowing tributary to the Osilinka River, approximately 180 kilometres northwest of the community of Fort St. James.
The occurrence is located on the western edge of the Omineca Belt within parautochthonous rocks of North American craton affinity. A Cambrian to Lower Devonian package consisting of the Razorback (Kechika and Road River groups equivalents), Echo Lake (Sandpile Group equivalent) and Otter Lakes (McDame Group equivalent) groups comprise a regional northwest-plunging anticline which is offset by faults and local drag folds. Sandy and argillaceous dolomite, massive limestone and minor calcareous slate comprise this Lower Paleozoic sequence.
Sphalerite with minor galena and barite are hosted predominantly in limestone of the Ordovician to Lower Devonian Echo Lake Group. Accessory minerals are dolomite and calcite. In 1951, a 15-metre trench sample assayed 2 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 72).
In 1951, the property was staked by Ernest and Gordon Davies and optioned to Northwestern Explorations Limited. Evaluation of data obtained by trenching indicated the existence of low-grade lead-zinc mineralization.
Placer Development Limited initiated geochemical and geophysical work on the property during 1966 and continued working there intermittently through 1968. Approximately 762 metres of trenching was carried out and failed to prove continuity between the small pods of breccia-hosted mineralization previously found. Ainsworth’s (1968) evaluation was that the property had a very limited tonnage potential and was characterized by low-grade mineralization; he did not recommend additional work.
Borovic returned to the area for Placer in 1976. On the basis of his mapping he recommended an expanded soil geochemical survey of the claims which was carried out in 1977. A total of 77.5 kilometres of lines were surveyed and flagged with compass and hip chain. This work extended the geochemical anomalies identified earlier and located previously unknown anomalies farther east on the Alfie 4 claim.
Work carried out by Placer Development Limited during 1980 consisted of extending the 1977 soil grid to the northwest of the grid origin and filling in gaps in the coverage east of the grid origin. A total of 1020 soil samples were taken. Very detailed prospecting, geological mapping and rock sampling was also carried out on some soil geochemical anomalies identified by earlier workers.
