The property is at the head of Abbott Creek, a minor west flowing tributary of Healy Creek which flows to the south into the Lardeau River. The Abbott (L.765), King William (L.766), Union (L.767) and Reunion (L.6040) claims are at approximately 2075 metres elevation on the west side of Abbott Peak. The Reunion is a restaking of the Union claim. The tenures are on strike to the southeast of the Wagner [082KNW212] and Francis Jewell [082KNW050] occurrences.

The showings were located in the early 1890s and the Lillooet, Fraser River and Cariboo Gold Fields Company Limited drove a 100 metres long crosscut into a limestone bluff to tap a 0.5 metre wide galena-rich lens, in 1896. The crosscut was stopped short of the target after two workers died in a snow slide the following year. Surface stripping a few years later located a 3.6 to 4.6 metres wide vein, and subsidiary structures running parallel to it at 122 and 152 metres distance. In 1926, C.T. Porter and Associates owned the property. A second, short, adit was driven the following year. Leadbridge Mines, Limited, a subsidiary of St-Joseph Lead Company of New York, acquired the property along with several others in the area, in 1949, and mapped it. The claims were held by Bannockburn Resources Limited in 1984, and the following year they were transferred to Turner Energy & Resources Limited and Mikado Resources Limited. They became part of their Wagner [082KNW212] joint venture, which covered several major showings. In 1988, Mikado Resources Limited processed 1031 tonnes of custom ore, producing 81 grams of gold, 10,677 grams of silver, 4,204 kilograms of lead and 32,887 kilograms of zinc. In later years, Silver Peak Resources Limited (70 percent) and Golden Arch Resources Limited (30 percent) spent over $5,000,000 on the Wagner and Abbott properties and established a reserve on the Abbott.

In 1998, Roper Resources Incorporated elected to earn an interest in the property and the following year, Canam Mining Corporation and Silver Peak Resources Limited rehabilitated and upgraded the old Ainsworth mill to handle ore from the deposit. The mill was designed to handle approximately 135 tonnes of polymetallic sulphide ore per day. At the same time, Canam announced that it had received the permits required to mine and transport ore from the Abbott mine to the Ainsworth mill. Production was scheduled to start in 1999.

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 Abbott property is underlain by schistose, isoclinally folded, northwest striking and southwest dipping, calcareous and carbonaceous phyllite and phyllitic schist of the basal part of the Index Formation and the upper part of the Badshot limestone. The mineralization is found in both units. It occurs in quartz veins in the phyllites and schists and as replacements in the limestone.

The upper portal was collared on the contact between schist and limestone and driven as a 7.6 metres long crosscut through a lens of high-grade, massive to semi-massive, replacement sulphide in the limestone. There is a shallow shaft in the floor of the adit. Chip samples across the surface expression of the lens in 1985 produced a weighted average assay of 0.86 grams per tonne gold, 752 grams per tonne silver, 28.47 per cent lead and 16.6 per cent zinc over 11.0 metres true width (George Cross News Letter, 28th October, 1985). The sulphide lens strikes at 155 degrees and dips at 75 degrees to the southwest. It is approximately 20 metres along strike and 11 metres in width. However, its depth is uncertain. The mineralization consists of clusters and disseminations of coarse crystalline galena, sphalerite and pyrite with a quartz-calcite gangue cementing brecciated fragments of limestone and phyllite. At the portal, the Abbott zone is described as having an irregular 0.60 to 0.91 metre wide vein of coarse-grained galena, sphalerite and pyrite which then extends into the limestone and forms a flat body of high-grade galena. Three metres further into the adit, and across an intervening band of limestone, there is an irregular 0.91 metre wide zone of pyrite, sphalerite, galena mineralization where quartz replaces siliceous limestone. Chalcopyrite occurs as specks in the sphalerite and tetrahedrite as specks in galena.

There is a second, caved, adit collared in schist 28 metres below the upper portal. Its length is uncertain but the presence of sulphide-rich fragments on the dump suggests that it reached the limestone contact. In 1986, the replacement zone was open along strike and to depth and Mikado Resources Limited conducted a diamond drill programme to establish the size of the Abbott resource and test additional targets. The following year, it collared a new portal on the Abbott zone and announced plans for 152 metres of development work. In the course of development, it stockpiled approximately 3000 tonnes of high-grade ore. Measured "reserves" in Zone 1 at the Abbott are 29,573 tonnes grading 216.3 grams per tonne silver, 1.2 grams per tonne gold, 8.41 per cent lead and 16.51 per cent zinc. Measured "reserves" on Zone 2 are 9453 tonnes grading 504.2 grams per tonne silver, 1.1 grams per tonne gold, 16.06 per cent lead and 14.91 per cent zinc (Filing Statement 99/89, Golden Arch Resources in EMR Mineral Bulletin MR 223 B.C. 52). To the northwest of the upper adit, on the King William claim, large quartz-calcite veins occur in phyllites a short distance west of the limestone contact and continue at intervals approximately 1500 metres northwest to the Jewel property [082KNW057]. The veins are very slightly mineralized with pyrite, sphalerite, galena and minor chalcopyrite. Their strike is 155 degrees and they have near vertical dips. A zone of mineralization that assayed 8.9 grams per tonne gold, 168 grams per tonne silver, 0.31 per cent lead and 0.34 per cent zinc over 1.5 metres, occurs 152 metres northwest of the Abbott zone and may be related to the aforementioned veins (George Cross News Letter #192, 1986).

Two additional mineralized zones have been located in Badshot Formation limestone on strike and 609 metres northwest of the Abbott zone. They are 9 metres wide and contain galena, sphalerite and pyrite (George Cross News Letter #167, 1986). Also, 135 metres northeast and up section of the Abbott zone, 10 bands of silicified and dolomitized limestone have been discovered within a 30 metres wide section of the Badshot Formation. They have been traced for more than 609 metres along strike. Initial surface sampling has indicated lead, zinc, silver and gold values (George Cross News Letter #170, 1986).

In 1987, Mikado diamond drilled the Greenlaw vein on the Abbott property and reported "indicated reserves" of the Greenlaw Vein are 100,616 tonnes grading 195.0 grams per tonne silver, 0.89 grams per tonne gold, 5.61 per cent lead and 2.88 per cent zinc (Filing Statement 99/89, Golden Arch Resources in EMR Mineral Bulletin MR 223 B.C. 52).

In 1999, Silver Peak Resources Limited announced that there were plans to commence mining the Abbott property in July 1999. At the time, the "measured reserves" for the Abbott zone total 39,030 tonnes grading 286.3 grams per tonne silver, 1.2 grams per tonne gold, 10.26 per cent lead and 16.12 per cent zinc in two zones (Silver Peak Resources Limited, Press Release, January 18, 1999). The 900-tonne stockpile of Abbott ore was to be processed in the Spring of 1999.