The Black Eagle and Sunset prospects are on the west side of Finkle (Seven-Mile) Creek, a south flowing tributary of Lardeau Creek, approximately 1.0 kilometre above its mouth. The Black Eagle (L.4735) and Sunset (L.4736) Crown grants are adjacent to each other and are immediately to the northwest of the Canadian (L.4737). They are part of a complex tenure cluster that straddles the structure that hosts the Nettie L. [082KNW100] and Silver Cup [082KNW027] occurrences.
There was a small amount of development work completed on both claims in the late 1890s and J.W. Livingstone worked the area in 1917. Camfrey Resources Limited drilled two holes in 1987.
The Trout Lake area is underlain by a thick succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Badshot Formation and Lardeau Group near the northern end of the Kootenay arc, an arcuate, north to northwest trending belt of Paleozoic and Mesozoic strata that is now classified as a distinct, pericratonic, terrane. The arc rocks are bordered by Precambrian quartzite in the east and they young to the west, where they are bounded by Jurassic-age intrusive complexes. They were deformed during the Antler orogeny in Devonian-Mississippian time and were refolded and faulted during the Columbian orogeny, in the Middle Jurassic. A large panel, the "Selkirk allochthon", was later offset to the northeast by dip-slip motion along the Columbia River Fault.
The Badshot Formation is composed of a thick Cambrian limestone that is a distinctive marker horizon in the Trout Lake area. It is underlain by Hamill Group quartzite, and it is overlain by a younger assemblage of limestone, calcareous, graphitic and siliceous argillite and siltstone, sandstone, quartzite and conglomerate, and also mafic volcanic flows, tuffs and breccias, all of which belong to the Lardeau Group. The rocks are isoclinally folded and intensely deformed, but only weakly metamorphosed. They occur as intercalated beds of marble, quartzite and grey, green and black phyllite and schist. Fyles and Eastwood (EMPR BULL 45) subdivided the group into six formations (Index, Triune, Ajax, Sharon Creek, Jowett and Broadview) of which the lowermost (Index) and uppermost (Broadview) are the most widespread. The Triune (siliceous argillite), Ajax (quartzite) and Sharon Creek (siliceous argillite) are restricted to the Trout Lake area. The Jowett is a mafic volcanic unit.
The Nettie L. Ajax, Gyp and other tenures on Nettie L. Mountain cover a northwest trending "ledge", approximately 18 metres wide, that contains quartz-carbonate veins that carry pyrite, galena, sphalerite and chalcopyrite, and values in gold and silver. The surface trace is commonly marked by an oxidized "iron cap" that is readily visible in areas of thin cover. The area is underlain siliceous argillites of the Triune and Sharon Creek Formations, by quartzite of the Ajax Formation and by grits and black phyllites of the lower part of the Broadview Formation. The rocks are folded, deformed and locally highly schistose. The main area of mineralization, encompassing the Gyp, Nettie L. and Ajax mine property, is bounded on the northeast by the Cup Creek Fault, on the southwest by the (probably faulted) base of the Broadview Formation, and on the southeast by the Brow Fault. It is 1000 metres long and 200 to 250 metres wide, and covers a portion of the core of the Silver Cup Anticline. This is a regionally important isoclinal fold that is over-turned to the southwest and plunges at 25 degrees to the northwest. It imparts an axial plane cleavage that strikes to the northwest and dips at 60 degrees to the northeast. The rocks are cut by axial plane shears and northeast trending cross faults. One of the latter displaces the anticline between the Nettie L. and Ajax workings. The ore lenses are controlled by faults and drag folds in the core of the fold structure. In the Nettie L. [082KNW100] mine, they are also found in cross faults. The structure is complicated by locally large displacements on post-mineral faults in the plane of the "main lead".
The Black Eagle and Sunset claims are underlain by rocks of the Lardeau Group. They are on the northeast limb of the Silver Cup anticline and are isoclinally folded, highly deformed and locally intensely phyllitic. They strike to the northwest and dip at a moderate to steep angle to the northeast. There is very little specific geological information on the claims; however, in 1896, approximately 18.3 metres of open cut and tunneling was done on the Black Eagle, exposing a 0.36 metre wide vein that produced assays of 3418 grams per tonne silver. Two years later, the Black Eagle and Sunset were collectively described as having a crosscut and drift of 24 metes with some "good ore" in 0.15 metre streaks in the wall.
More recently, in 1993, the Black Eagle prospect was described as having two adits driven to test a narrow north-trending quartz vein. Camfrey Resources Limited diamond drilled two short holes in 1987. The core shows that the vein is between 0.2 and 0.5 metre wide and contains disseminated galena, sphalerite and pyrite.
