The Parson deposit is located 7 kilometres southwest of the town of Parson.

Much of the area is covered by surficial deposits and good bedrock exposures are minimal, generally restricted to steep slopes and knolls. Bedrock in the area consists of a thick series of quartzites, possibly of the Hadrynian to Lower Cambrian Hamill Group. The quartzites are thin to thick bedded and coarsely granular. Underlying the quartzite is a 3 to 6 metre thick bed of slaty, dark grey shale, in turn underlain by blue-grey, crystalline, brown- weathering dolomite approximately 30 metres thick.

Rocks in the Parson mine area strike northwesterly with dips of 70 degrees to the southwest and appear to be on the east limb of a major syncline. Locally, the strike changes to north-northeast with dips of 48 to 75 degrees to the southwest.

Barite occurs in two irregular fissure veins 90 to 100 metres apart. These veins strike 350 degrees and dip steeply to the west. They are confined between two fault planes with negligible horizontal movement. Underground, the veins appear to coalesce. The East vein varies from 1.5 to 9.1 metres wide, and the West vein from 3.3 to 9.1 metres wide.

The barite is white to creamy white, coarse grained and crystalline; much of it is iron stained. Minor to trace amounts of hematite, quartz, pyrite, chalcopyrite, siderite and calcite are found in the barite. The barite is used in drilling mud and extender applications.

Production at the Parson operation commenced in 1941 and except for some short periods of non-production, has continued producing to the present day. Initially, barite was quarried from three open pits. In 1957, adits were driven into the deposit and all mining since that time has been from underground.

The production statistics (1944-1973) have been compiled from Minister of Mines Annual Reports and are incomplete. Mountain Minerals Co. Ltd. have provided their production figures for the years 1982 to 1992.

It was reported, at the end of 1996, that reserves were almost depleted and the mine may close by the year 2000. The company is looking for new sources of barite. In 1997, Highwood Resources Ltd. completed a 15 hole drill program, totalling 1465 metres. The mine closed in 1999.