The Paula vein is located on the east side of McKay Creek, approximately 3.5 kilometres north of Cowichan Lake.

The area is underlain by granodiorite of the Early to Middle Jurassic Island Plutonic Suite and hornfelsed basalt, andesite and rhyolite tuff of the Upper Devonian McLaughlin Ridge Formation, (Sicker Group). The granodiorite is cut by narrow aplite and basalt dykes.

Mineralization occurs in a narrow discontinuous quartz vein that appears to lie at the contact between the volcanic and intrusive rocks hosted in a shear zone in the volcanics. The vein contains up to 30 per cent sulphides comprising pyrite, pyrrhotite and minor chalcopyrite. The vein, 1 to 15 centimetres wide, pinches out 5 metres to the south, strikes 35 to 60 degrees and dips 76 to 85 degrees east.

In 1983, a sample (R23429) of the vein assayed 236.0 grams per tonne gold, 807.1 grams per tonne silver and 1.4 per cent copper (Assessment Report 11311). In 1988, the average weighted assay of grab samples of "better material" taken over a 42 centimetre width of the vein and shear (M1-R to M3-R) was 152.20 grams per tonne gold (Assessment Report 18093). One sample (M1-R) contained 1.97 per cent copper and 50 grams per tonne silver (Assessment report 18093). In 1997, drilling indicated that the assumed down dip extensions of the Paula vein were weakly anomalous in gold and contained 100 to 265 parts per billion gold in holes 97-1 to 97-4 to the south. Hole 97-5 intersected a narrow vein in granodiorite, which assayed 12.65 grams per tonne gold over 30 centimetres (Assessment Report 25238). In 2014, a select rock sample (1A) of mineralized vein material assayed 441.8 grams per tonne gold, 1804 grams per tonne silver and greater than 1.0 per cent copper, while another sample (2A), taken a few metres away in the granite host, assayed 0.31 gram per tonne gold (Assessment Report 35010).

Approximately 300 metres to the south, a shear zone approximately 15 metres wide, assayed low in gold from sub-shears and 0.93 per cent copper from an altered dike (Assessment Report 18093). Mineralization is related to the intrusive event and appears to favour structural zones developed along contact zones.

In 1983, Noranda Mining and Exploration completed a program of geochemical sampling, geological mapping and ground geophysical surveys on the area as the Paula claims. During 1988 through 1996, Ruza Resources prospected and sampled the area as the Marathon and Taurus claims. In 1997, Ambra Resources Group completed a program of 7 diamond drill holes, totalling 559.4 metres, on the Marathon 1 claim. In 2014, the area was prospected by D.M. Arbic. In 2018, D.M Arbic collected one grab sample which was not successfully assayed.