The area of the Bea showing is underlain by a fault-bound block of Permian to Jurassic Hozameen Complex rocks consisting mainly of shale/argillite. This is in contact to the north with metamorphic rocks of the Custer Gneiss and to the west with Eocene conglomerate. Northeast trending peridotite-dunite and associated brecciated rocks, probably as dikes or sills, intrude the country rock.

This showing at Schkam Lake was originally reported as an occurrence of nickel oxide in a small band of silicate-siderite rock interpreted as an intrusion. Around the same time, a showing at the lake was described as a nickel saprolite deposit.

In 1965, Impad Holdings drilled a diamond-drill hole at this location. From 76 to 79 metres, altered diorite porphyry with rare pyrrhotite and some pyrite assayed 0.13 per cent nickel. A zone of highly slickensided mashed rock from about 106.7 to 115.8 metres assayed 0.12 percent nickel (from 106.7 to 109.7 metres), 0.28 per cent nickel (from 109.7 to 112.8 metres) and 0.30 per cent nickel (from 112.8 to 115.8 metres) (Property File - Drill Logs and Certificate of Assay for Diamond Drill Hole No. 1, Impad Holdings Ltd., 1965).

Within a few hundred metres to the east of the drillhole, an area of serpentinized amygdaloidal rock contains sparsely disseminated pyrite and chalcopyrite (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1965, page 218).