The Bannockburn prospect is at 1760 metres elevation on the south side of Hall Creek, a major northeasterly flowing tributary of the Duncan River. It is one of a cluster of prospects in the Hall Creek basin. The Bannockburn is close to the Sheila [082KNW052] and Superior [082KNW054] prospects and all three are south of the Red Elephant [082KNW053]. The latter was known as the "Bannockburn" for a time in the 1950s.

The Bannockburn vein was located in the late 1890s and it had considerable surface development, including a 33.5 metres long adit and 10.0 metres deep shaft when acquired by Bannockburn Mines Limited in 1904. There were also several trenches, over a length of 61 metres. By 1909, the crosscut had been driven to the southwest for 53.6 metres. In it, at 26.2 metres, a secondary drift had been pushed along a fault for a distance of 36.0 metres to the southeast. There was also a short cross cut to the southwest at the face of the drift. The adit was collared 30 metres below the surface workings but failed to intersect the type of mineralization exposed on surface. In 1909, the trenches were "cold-blooded" sampled. Trench "A" exposed 1.22 metres of "solid" galena and assayed 946.3 grams per tonne silver, 55 percent lead and "$2" gold. Trench "B" exposed 0.91 metres of "solid" galena that assayed 781.7 grams per tonne silver, 46.9 per cent lead and "$2" gold. At the same time, Winze "C" exposed about 0.76 metres of galena and open pit "D" had 0.81 metres of "solid" galena. The vein was considered "proven" for 45.7 metres along strike and was thought to extend 152 metres to the northwest to a small showing. A crosscut was driven to access the limestone-schist contact in 1919. In 1920, the property was owned by Alex Smith of Kaslo.

In 1954, Granby Consolidated Mining, Smelting and Power Company Limited held an option on the property along with the nearby Wagner [082KNW212] deposit. At that time, the Bannockburn was reported to have been idle since 1940. The following year, Granby conducted a surface drilling program on what is now the Sheila [082KNW052] and located a 3.0 to 4.6 metres wide band of replacement-mineralized, grey to buff, fine-grained impure limey sediment. The band strikes southeast from Hall Creek across the Bannockburn, Buckeye, Silver Bottom and Superior [082KNW054] crown grants and has been explored for approximately 700 metres. The company also drilled two holes near the Bannockburn adit, which is reported to be 122 metres northeast and downhill from the mineralized limestone band. Sheep Creek Mines Limited may also have had an interest in the property. However, it was optioned to the Bunker Hill Company from about 1954 to 1957. In 1960, Sheep Creek drilled a single hole into the Bannockburn vein while exploring the replacement zone on the adjacent Sheila prospect. The property was owned by J.A.C. Ross and Associates and optioned to SEREM Limited, in 1977; however the company's main area of interest was the Sheila. The owners incorporated Bannockburn Resources Limited to develop the property in 1981. It was later acquired by Turner Energy and Resources Limited and Mikado Resources Limited. In 1987, they were primarily interested in the Wagner [082KNW212] and Abbott [082KNW056] properties. However, they noted the presence of high-grade silver-lead and gold-silver-lead showings in the Bannockburn area and discussed plans for bulldozer trenching and diamond drilling to test the deposit to depth.

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.

Bannockburn veins are in the footwall of the Badshot limestone. They are in isoclinally folded Marsh Adams Formation strata, part of the Hamill Group. There are at least three veins exposed in a small basin approximately 183 metres northeast, and several hundred metres lower in elevation, than the Sheila showings [082KNW052]. The main vein, which contains massive galena, a little sphalerite and moderate amounts of silver lies along a 142 striking, 65 degree northeast dipping contact between light brown fissile schist and white crystalline limestone. The best showing is on the edge of a small bluff above the portal of the adit. It consists of replacement of marble, over a width of 1.8 metres, by stringers and veinlets of galena, sphalerite, pyrite and a little chalcopyrite. In 1960, the main Bannockburn vein was described as having three lenses of massive galena with lesser sphalerite, pyrite and minor chalcopyrite. The lenses are reported to be one above the other and are "a few feet thick and high". They appeared to be pencil shaped replacements formed in the limestone at the intersections of relatively gently dipping beds and steeply dipping cleavages. They appear to plunge at a low angle to the southeast. In 1984, Bannockburn Resources Limited described the main vein as being between 1.0 and 1.5 metres wide on surface and more or less continuous along a southeast strike length of 23 metres, at or near the crest of a minor anticline.