The Sea Otter showing is located about 2.0 kilometres north of Davies Point at the entrance of Alice Arm on Observatory Inlet, about 7.5 kilometres east of Anyox. It was first discovered in 1916, and has been evaluated periodically since then.
The region is underlain by a roof pendant, consisting of volcanic and sedimentary rocks, within the Eocene Coast Plutonic Complex. These pendant rocks have been correlated with Middle-Upper Jurassic Hazelton Group rocks and overlying upper Middle to Upper Jurassic Bowser Lake Group sedimentary rocks (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 3453). The Hazelton rocks consist of variably chloritized pillow and massive basalt with minor mafic tuffs. The overlying Bowser Lake sediments consist of siltstone and sandstone with minor chert and limestone. The sequence has undergone regional greenschist grade metamorphism and has been deformed by two northeast trending phases of folding.
The country rock consists of a folded sequence of thin-bedded argillite, graphitic argillite, siltstone and argillaceous sandstone, locally altered to mica schists. South of the showing, approximately 45 metres, an outcrop of argillite and greywacke strikes 140 degrees and has a vertical dip.
Trenching has exposed a 0.3 metre wide lens of massive pyrrhotite with blebs and stringers of chalcopyrite, minor pyrite and pentlandite. The lens is overlain by a 2.0 metre thick gossan zone of limonite containing nodules of massive pyrrhotite, chalcopyrite, pentlandite and associated cobalt minerals. The sulphide lens and gossan zone are underlain by a medium to coarse grained olivine gabbro sill. The sill contains disseminated blebs of pyrrhotite rimmed with chalcopyrite 6.0 centimetres in diameter. The massive sulphide lens strikes west-northwest and dips 50 degrees to the north and the sill has a similar orientation.
A sample across the massive sulphide lens assayed trace gold, 10.3 grams per tonne silver, trace platinum, 1.66 per cent copper, trace lead and zinc, 1.11 per cent nickel and 0.18 per cent cobalt (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1965, page 61). A composite chip sample along a 9.0 metre trench assayed trace gold, 10.3 grams per tonne silver, 0.13 per cent nickel, 0.27 per cent copper and 0.01 per cent cobalt (Geology, Exploration and Mining in British Columbia 1969, page 68).
Initial exploratory work within the showing area was carried out prior to 1916 and consisted of hand trenching of a sulphide zone. No further work was reported until 1965 when the Haywire mineral claims were staked by local prospectors. Some hand trenching that year was followed by geochemical and geophysical surveys conducted by Falconbridge Nickel Mines Ltd. In 1971, two short Winkie diamond-drill holes were completed on the property by the Joanne B.C. Syndicate. No further work was done until 1980 when the property was re-located as the Sea Otter mineral claim and limited soil and rock sampling and an orientation magnetometer survey were completed. A 1984 exploratory program, undertaken on behalf of Suez Petroleum Corporation, consisted of the establishment of 13 kilometres of cut grid, the collection and analyses of soil and rock samples and magnetometer and VLF-EM geophysical surveys. In 1995, the Alice claims were located on behalf of Angel Jade Mines Ltd. A brief inspection of the property was undertaken in 1997 in order to determine the condition of the 1984 grid and to re-establish the position of the principal mineral showing; two rock samples were collected for subsequent analyses. In 1998, an investigation of the principal mineralized zone was conducted. Three rock samples were collected for analyses and the location of one of the previous Winkie diamond-drill holes relative to the mineralized zone was established.
