The Copper King property is situated at an elevation of 1830 to 2440 metres on White Grouse Mountain, at the headwaters of Goat River and Meachen Creek, approximately 39 kilometres southwest of Kimberley.
The area is underlain by siltstones, quartzites, dolomites and phyllites of the Proterozoic Aldridge Creston and Kitchener formations of the Purcell Supergroup, intruded by a small quartz monzonite stock of possible Cretaceous age. Buff dolomites, white-grey quartzites and minor argillites of the Kitchener Formation have a northward strike and moderate to steep westerly dips. The Lower Creston Formation consists mainly of laminated to thickly bedded argillites and siltites with minor fine-grained quartz wackes. The rocks are waxy green to olive in colour with tan weathering surfaces, wavy bedding and abundant mudcracks. Rocks of the Upper Aldridge, underlying an area to the east, consist of a relatively homogeneous unit with occasional thin interbeds of light grey quartzite and laminated light and dark grey argillaceous quartzite. The intrusive stock consists of medium to fine-grained massive biotite monzogranite. The sediments adjacent to the intrusion have been altered to produce concentric zones of biotite hornfels and siliceous siltstone. Mineralization in the form of molybdenite, scheelite, stibnite and galena occurs in a narrow zone near the contact of the intrusion.
A zone 30 to 120 centimetres wide and bearing irregular quartz stringers was exposed for 18 metres by a trench in buff-weathering dolomitic strata of the Middle Proterozoic Kitchener Formation, Purcell Supergroup. Tetrahedrite, pyrite, galena and minor chalcopyrite occur.
By 1893, a number of claims had been staked in the area but, due to the difficult access, little was done besides assessment work. A 15-metre adit was driven on the Copper King claim and another adit on the Silver Tip claim. In 1900, the Delaware claim (Lot 2858) was Crown-granted to Messrs. Ray and Gosselin, the Lucy claim (Lot 2860) to J. Blanchard and A. Williams and the Chapin claim (Lot 2862) to California and Clipper Silver-Lead Mines Limited. In 1905, Crown grants were issued to Hugh Sutherland for the Copper King, Big Four, Mamoth, Silver Tip, Duplex and Colby claims (Lots 3835 to 3838, 3840, 3632 and 6340, respectively). Another group of claims situated approximately 800 metres to the south and including the Storm King, Robber King, Gem, Nowell and Tamarack claims (Lots 3625, 3626, 3631, 3838 and 6338, respectively) was Crown-granted in 1905 to Messrs. Gibson, Sutherland, Nell and Holmes. The Banner claim (Lot 3839) was Crown-granted to Hugh Sutherland in 1909.
In 1980, Daniel Gallagher of Pearson Gallagher Limited carried out an exploration program on the White Grouse claim group on behalf of Gerhardi Holdings Limited. Two historic adits and dumps were located on the Copper King claims, situated in the northern portion of the claim group. The adits were driven on parallel veins striking on a southeasterly trend and continuing for more than 1.6 kilometres over the ridge extending from White Grouse Mountain. An average vein width of 0.9 to 1.5 metres was observed in surface outcrop over a distance of several hundred metres. A representative sample taken from the more westerly workings contained tetrahedrite and chalcopyrite mineralization in a quartz gangue. The quartz gangue had an average width of 1.2 metres. The Silver Tip claim to the immediate southeast of the Copper King claim was also sampled. Observed mineralization consisted of copper carbonates, azurite and malachite with visible tetrahedrite and chalcopyrite. Visible pyrite specimens were found around the workings of a shaft on the claim.
In 1985, Lancana Mining Corporation conducted a property examination of the Whiskey Jack claim to the south. Localized mineralization was observed within extensive quartz vein systems hosted in dolomite.
In 2006, Aeroquest Limited carried out an airborne geophysical survey over the Storm King property, owned by Jasper Mining Corporation and held under option by Dynamic Exploration Limited. The Copper King occurrence was situated in the northwestern portion of the property. In total, 96.2 line kilometres of electromagnetic, magnetic and radiometric surveys were flown over the property. A large electromagnetic anomaly, measuring at least 900 metres from east to west, was identified in the immediate vicinity of the Copper King occurrence.
In 2007, the area was held by Kootenay Gold Incorporated as part of the Whopper claims group. That year, a total of 200 soil samples and 46 rock samples were collected and sent for analysis. The majority of the samples were collected on the ridge running between Ailsa and Whiteboar lakes. In 2010, 59 rock samples were collected from an area covering the Copper King occurrence. Later that year, another 17 rock samples were collected from a zone immediately south of the Copper King occurrence.
Fjordland Exploration Incorporated optioned the Slocanny Granny property in 2010. The property contained the Ailsa occurrence (MINFILE 082FNE001) in the northeast corner and the Copper King occurrence near the western boundary. In 2011, Fjordland Exploration completed a program of soil sampling over the Copper King occurrence. A total of 209 samples were collected and sent for analysis. Results of the sampling program delineated a 600-metre-long northwesterly copper and molybdenum trend to the east and a more western lead-zinc zone with a northwest-southeast trend.
