The geology of the region consists of(?)Hadrynian to Paleozoic Snowshoe Group rocks. The Snowshoe Group is an assemblage of dominantly metasedimentary rocks of the Barkerville Terrane of south-central British Columbia. The metasedimentary rocks consist of mainly marble, quartzite and phyllite which in the Yanks Peak area comprise the Keithley and Harveys Ridge successions. Metamorphism of the region varies from chlorite grade to sillimanite and higher but the lode gold deposits of the region occur only in rocks metamorphosed no higher than greenschist facies.
The Corban showing consists of gold and silver mineralization which occurs erratically in northeast trending quartz veins which mainly cut quartzite. The veins, containing pyrite and ankerite, are structurally controlled. Their orientations are "in part controlled by the regional fault and fracture pattern" (Struik, 1988; Geological Survey of Canada Memoir 421). It is suggested that gold mineralization and chlorite grade metamorphism was coeval. The vein quartz is generally massive or only slightly fractured and has a milky white appearance. At the Corban showing the vugs are exceptionally large and may be lined with quartz crystals 2.5 to 5 centimetres across.
A sample (assumed to be a chip sample) from an adit taken in 1924, assayed 383.71 grams per tonne gold and 95.93 grams per tonne silver across 0.5 metre (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1925, page A161).
The Corban veins have been exposed in three adits, two shallow shafts, and two open cuts. The adits are caved and the open cuts partly sloughed so that the veins are not all visible (ca. 1954). Actual and inferred positions of the veins indicate that they occupy fractures striking 050 to 060 degrees. The zone is believed to lie on the west side of the large fault that was encountered in the long crosscut. Vein quartz as much as 76 centimetres wide is exposed in some of the workings, and quartz is seen on the dumps of others. The quartz is extremely vuggy and contains numerous large quartz crystals which distinguish it from other vein quartz in the area. Cubical cavities mark the places where pyrite has been weathered from the vein outcrops, and limonitic incrustations in the vugs are common. However, the amount of pyrite mineralization is small, and visible gold was seen in the outcrops of only two veins. Three adits appear to have been driven on separate veins. From available surveys their lengths are: lower adit, 45 metres; middle adit, 55 metres; and upper adit, 26 metres (Bulletin 34).
In August, 1864, Thomas Haywood, G.W. Anderson, William Luce, and eight others, known as the Rising Sun Company, recorded eleven claims on a quartz vein on Little Snowshoe Mountain (Yanks Peak was known to old-timers as Little Snowshoe Mountain). The above location is not positively identified, but it may be on what are now known as the Talbot (093A 028) and Corban showings (Bulletin 34). In 1954, the Yanks Peak group consisted of seven Crown-granted claims (Lots 10662 to 10668) and the assessed owner was Cariboo Yankee Belle Mining Company Limited. The claims are on the southwest slope of Yanks Peak and extend in single file from the top of the ridge at 1768 metres elevation southeastward downhill to French Snowshoe Creek at 1371 metres elevation. In 1923, veins were found by H. Talbot and J. Larsen on the southwest slope of Yanks Peak, and three claims were located in that year. Three other claims were located in 1924. In 1929, a mill of 25 tons capacity was erected near the camp and near the portal of a low level adit. The Yanks Peak Mining Company Limited was incorporated in January, 1930, to explore the showings. Little work was done until 1933, by which time the property was being worked by Cariboo Yankee Belle Mining Company Limited. This company began in August, 1933, to drive a crosscut to explore the Corban vein zone about 106 metres below its outcrop. The portal of the long Cariboo Yankee Belle crosscut is 85 metres southeast of the west corner of the Yanks Peak No. 3 claim (Lot 10664) at 1616 metres elevation. The face of the crosscut is about 116 metres vertically below the Corban vein zone. The crosscut was driven 483 metres when work stopped in 1935. In 1938, the length of the crosscut was increased to 501 metres, and no work has been done on the property since. The portal is caved and the workings are inaccessible (ca. 1954).
The veins for the most part lie in two main groups. The Corban vein zone is on the Yanks Peak claim (Lot 10662), between 1699 and 1745 metres elevation, in an area about 152 metres long and 61 metres wide below the old high-level trail to the Midas camp. The Talbot veins (093 028) are on the Yanks Peak No. 2 claim (Lot 10663) at about 1737 metres elevation and are about 457 metres northwest of the Corban showings.
