The New Zone Copper occurrence is described as being at 1250 metres elevation, west of the Nettie L. [082KNW100], on the south fork of Lardeau Creek. Its precise location is unknown. However, there is an old tunnel collared on the (now reverted) Good Hope crown granted mineral claim that may mark the site. It is to the west of the mine access road, immediately below the Nettie L. campsite, on the Good Luck (L.4956) claim. New Zone Copper Limited owned the New Zone Copper showing in 1961.
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 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. 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 mine area 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, a regionally important isoclinal structure that plunges at 25 degrees to the northwest. The area is also cut by northeast trending cross faults. One of these displaces the anticline between the Nettie L. and Ajax workings. The ore lenses are controlled by faults and drag folds associated with the anticlinal structure, which is over-turned to the southwest. Its axial plane dips at 60 degrees to the northeast. The ore lenses are also found on cross faults, of which there are three relatively large, north to northeast striking structures that cross the mine area. There are also large displacements on post-mineral faults in the plane of the "main lead".
New Zone Copper Limited owned the showing in 1961. It consists of a zone of schistose siliceous rocks that strikes at 140 degrees and dips steeply to the southwest and is sparsely mineralized with pyrite and some chalcopyrite. Two grab samples from surface assayed 0.29 and 0.16 per cent copper, and 0.12 and 0.13 per cent nickel. A drift was started below the showing.
