The Lily copper mine is located 1.2 kilometres west of the head of Ikeda Cove on the southeast coast of Moresby Island. The elevation ranges between 61 and 183 metres.

The showings were discovered in 1898 by Mr. A. Ikeda who traced float on the beach up to the outcrop. By 1907, Awaya, Ikeda and Company, primarily a Japanese fishing company not registered in Canada, held three claim groups in the area; the Lily, the Chrysanthemum (see Rose, 103B 029) and the Lotus (see 103B 040). The Lily Group comprised eight claims (Lots 66 to 72) covering 336.01 acres which were Crown-granted in 1908. Production started in 1906 but by 1909 all the easy-mining was finished. A new company, Ikeda Mines, Limited, was formed in Vancouver in 1910 and a programme of exploration and development was started which included 768 metres of diamond drilling in 22 holes. The company carried out assessment work on other claims in the area and in 1913 and 1917 received Crown-grants for 39 claims (Lots 93-100, 1857-1860, 1862, 1863, 1866-1882, 1884-1887, 1892, 1893, 1896 and 1963), including the Lotus and Chrysanthemum groups. In 1913 an aerial tramway was built from the Lily mine to the beach. By 1918 the mine was developed by four adits, all connected by winzes, with portals at 80, 94, 99, and 181 metres above sea level. The lowest, No. 3, is 201 metres long with two stopes, an 82-metre winze and a sub-level developed from it. The Nos. 2 and 2 1/2 have a combined length of 107 metres and No. 1 is 37 metres long.

There was little interest in the mine from 1920 until 1943 when St. Eugene Mining Corporation, Limited, bought the valid, Crown-granted claims; the reverted Crown-grants were subsequently acquired as mineral leases and additional claims were staked to include most of the original ground. Exploration of the Lily property was delayed until 1956 when it was examined and sampled in detail. Work in succeeding years included a geophysical survey in 1958 and 7 AX holes drilled for a total of 541 metres in 1964.

In July 1962 the properties were sold to Falconbridge Nickel Mines Limited. In 1985 Falconbridge Limited carried out geological mapping and a geochemical soil survey (2,050 samples) over the Lily and adjacent properties.

The area is underlain by greenstone and limestone of the Upper Triassic Vancouver Group (Karmutsen Formation) which is overlain by limestone of the Upper Triassic Sadler Formation (Lower Jurassic to Upper Triassic Kunga Group). Locally, the rocks strike 050 degrees and dip 35 degrees east and are flanked on the west by a sill-like body of fine diorite. The diorite is part of the Late Jurassic Burnaby Island Plutonic Suite and includes the Jedway stock. The stock has been dated at 164 Ma +/- 3 Ma (R.G. Anderson, personal communication, 1989).

The Lily mine contains four mineralized bodies, three of which occur as subparallel replacements of bedded shear zones in greenstone. Minerals present are chlorite, actinolite, quartz and calcite with pyrite, chalcopyrite, magnetite, pyrrhotite and traces of sphalerite. The sulphides occur as disseminations, streaks, bands and large irregular masses. Late diabase and basalt dykes cut the shears without offset.

The ore zones are referred to as the No. 1 shoot, measuring 76 by 67 by 4.5 metres, the No. 2 shoot, 43 by 15 by 4.5 metres, and the No. 31 Shoot, 43 by 12 by 0.6 metres. The average grade from production figures is 9.33 per cent copper, 3.8 grams per tonne gold and 64 grams per tonne silver. The fourth, or No. 1 adit body, lies 300 metres southwest of the Lily mine and is a 90 by 80 metre planar magnetite-rich skarn lens at the Sadler/Karmutsen contact. It is less than 3 metres wide with drill assays of 1.37 per cent copper over 0.8 metres and 58.53 per cent iron over 2.1 metres (Assessment Report 14818).

Inferred reserves at Lily are 22,677 tonnes grading between 1.5 and 2.0 per cent copper and some gold and silver (Bulletin 54, page 203).

The Lily produced 51,195 grams of gold, 862,548 grams of silver and 574,055 kilograms of copper from 13,410 tonnes between 1906 and 1920.

See also Jessie (103B 026), Adonis (103B 027) and Rose (103B 029).