The Ruby Silver showing is located on the east side of a tributary of Le Sueur (Mosquito) Creek, about 1500 metres east of the confluence of American Creek and the Bear River.
In 1910, the Portland Dreadnought Mining Company carried out tunnelling and open cutting on a group of 3 claims which presumably covered the showing. In 1920, Le Sueur held the Ruby Silver group over the showing and conducted further work. In 1924, Ruby Silver Mines, was formed and acquired the Ruby Silver claims (Ruby, Ruby 1, Star, Stirling, Pershing and Pershing 1) and Ruby Silver Extension claims (Ruby 2-5). That year the Ruby Silver adit, on the Ruby claim, had been driven at least 46 metres; several crosscuts were also driven. Further work was done the following year; this work probably included extension of the adit to about 62 metres. The company name was changed in 1929 to Ruby Silver Copper Mines. No further work was reported until 1984 when D. Brownlee acquired the Ruby Silver group and conducted an evaluation the following year. In 1986, Thios Resources Inc. acquired the property and subsequently entered into a joint venture with Adrian Resources Ltd. The joint venture conducted geological, geochemical and geophysical (VLF-EM and magnetometer) surveys on the property in 1990.
The area is underlain by Hazelton Group rocks of the Upper Triassic to Lower Jurassic Unuk River Formation unconformably overlain, to the east, by the Middle Jurassic Salmon River Formation (Bulletin 58, 63). An augite diorite stock intrudes the Unuk River Formation, north of the property.
The immediate area of the showing is underlain by Unuk River Formation argillites and siltstones that are locally overlain by andesitic to dacitic volcaniclastics. A prominent north-northeast trending fault lies just west of the showing.
The adit has been emplaced on a quartz-carbonate vein containing blebs and disseminations of pyrite and chalcopyrite, locally forming up to 10 per cent of the vein. Malachite and azurite staining is present (Assessment Report 20308). The vein is up to 1.5 metres wide, strikes 110 degrees and dips 68 degrees southwest. The adit follows the footwall of the vein, which, in turn, appears to follow a porphyritic dike (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1924, p. 69).
There is some ambiguity regarding the nature of the mineralization at the showing. Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 175 does not mention chalcopyrite, but instead describes the mineralization as comprising "pyrite, galena and sphalerite in a gangue of quartz and calcite" (p. 69). A report by P.E. Peterson, written for Ruby Silver Copper Mines in 1929 and cited in a prospectus of Thios Resources (Property File - April, 1987), mentions 3 tunnels on the property. The locations of these tunnels, presumably driven to explore an east-trending structure, are not known. Tunnel No. 3 may be the Ruby Silver adit. Samples of the vein mineralization in the tunnels assayed from 0.7 to 11.0 grams per tonne gold, 15.4 to 115.2 grams per tonne silver and trace to 9.3 per cent copper over widths of 0.3 to 1.8 metres (Property File - Cited in Thios Resources Inc., Prospectus April, 1987).
No significant assay values came from vein samples taken in 1990.
During 2005 through 2010, Auramex completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical sampling and airborne geophysical surveys on the area as the Bear River-Surprise Creek property.
