The showings are located 1.6 kilometres north of Skidegate village, just beyond the reserve, at an elevation of about 152 metres. The property is also called Skidegate and Skidegate-Sunrise.
The property was first mentioned in 1910 and was owned by Messrs. McLellan, Gordon, and Bourne. A 6-metre shaft was sunk. The following year the shaft was deepened to 15 metres and two 21-metre and 12-metre drifts were driven. In 1912 South Easter (Lot 1302) and Beaconsfield (Lot 1303) claims were Crown-granted to John McLellan and Alex Gordon.
In 1915 the property was leased to Messrs. Leighton and Hickey. The lessees sank a 7.6-metre shaft on the main vein. The property was returned to the owner in 1916 and in 1917 the 7 claims were bonded to the South Easter Mining Company, a subsidiary of Northern Customs Concentrators, Limited, of Cobalt, Ont.
In 1918 the company sank a 30-metre shaft with two drift levels. One drift was 38 metres long at the 15-metre level, and another drift was 107 metres long at the 30-metre level. South Easter relinquished the property in 1919.
In 1930 the property was taken over by Kitsault Eagle Silver Mines, Limited. A 13-metre shaft was sunk and from the bottom a crosscut was driven 12 metres west to the vein, which was drifted on for 11 metres north. Five surface samples over widths of 0.7 metre to 2 metres gave assays ranging from 0.6 to 179.7 grams per tonne gold. The original 30-metre shaft on the Southeaster claim was pumped out and exploration continued by crosscutting and drifting for the vertical extension of the ore shoot developed on the 15-metre level. Two adits were driven 177 and 207 metres from the main shaft, proving continuity of the vein for a length of 366 metres.
In 1932 considerable crosscutting was done on the 30-metre level of the main shaft. An open-cut on the northerly segment of the main vein is reported to have returned values of $2.20 to $58 across widths of 0.3 to over 1.2 metres. In 1932 reserves from the surface to 20 metres were estimated at 4,750 tons valued at $12-30 per ton at an average width of 1.8 metres. Operations were suspended early in May of 1933.
The property is underlain by Middle Jurassic Yakoun Group volcanics consisting of agglomerates, andesites, tuffs, and greenstone. North of the property and along the coast, the Yakoun Group is covered by Cretaceous Queen Charlotte Group, Haida Formation sandstones and shales. A diorite pluton intrudes rocks to the north.
Mineralization occurs in a zone of quartz veins and quartz stockworks up to 6 metres wide within a shear zone 0.6 to 9 metres wide and 300 metres long. The shear zone strikes 140 degrees and dips steeply southwest, and is carbonatized and silicified. Quartz veins are often fine grained, banded, vuggy and chalcedonic, occasionally with amethyst, and are typically enveloped by broad zones of white to buff coloured clay. The veins contain scattered grains and blebs to sometimes bands of galena, pyrite, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, free gold, and an unidentified grey soft metallic mineral (telluride ?). The zone is flanked to the west by an area of argillic alteration and to the east by propylitic (chlorite, carbonate, pyrite, sericite) altered volcanic rocks.
An average sample of dump material assayed 76.5 grams per tonne gold, 33.3 grams per tonne silver, 0.058 per cent copper, 7.09 per cent lead, and 13.90 per cent zinc (Assessment Report 9769). A trench sample taken across 3.7 metres of quartz vein and stockwork assayed 4.502 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 19941, page 7, Trench 2). Drilling in 1990 encountered 2.7 metres assaying 16.39 grams per tonne gold and 6.27 grams per tonne silver (Assessment Report 20493, page 1, DDH 11).
From 1910 to 1915 approximately 5 tonnes of high grade ore was extracted and from this approximately 653 grams of gold and 249 grams of silver were recovered. From 1919 to 1929 no production took place. From 1930 to 1936 approximately 454 tonnes of ore produced 622 grams gold, 591 grams silver with 117 kilograms of copper and 302 kilograms of lead. Clear Creek Resources conducted soil and rock sampling (423 soils, 114 rocks), VLF-EM and magnetometer surveys (20 line kilometres each), prospecting, geological mapping and trenching in 1989. This was followed by the drilling of 18 holes totaling 939.7 metres and the excavation of four trenches totalng 200 metres in 1990. The comapny continued work in 1991, with the drilling of 14 holes totaling 534.3 metres and the excavation of 13 trenches totaling 456 metres. Okak Bay Resources Ltd. completed geological mapping, trenching (16 totaling 675 metres) soil geochemistry (811 samples) and induced polarization surveys on the property in 1997 in an attempt to find similar mineralization north of the main zone.
