The Barney occurrence is located on the eastern slopes of Barney Gulch, approximately 4.5 kilometres northeast of the community of Stewart.

The area is underlain by the Middle Jurassic Salmon River Formation (Hazelton Group). These are intruded to the east by Tertiary stocks (Coast Plutonic Complex).

Locally, a fine-grained ash flow lapilli tuff laminated with thin black argillite layers and a, well silicified, altered and oxidized ash flow lapilli tuff with minor outcrops of limestone occur. To the south, a large stock of pyritized and weakly sericitized quartz monzodiorite outcrops.

Mineralization consists of massive sulphides of arsenopyrite, pyrrhotite and pyrite. Gold mineralization is reportedly associated with arsenopyrite.

Between 1989 and 1993, Minvita Enterprises completed programs of rock and soil sampling and a VLF-EM survey. In 1991, a north-south trending mineralized zone was identified over a distance of 100 metres. Rock sampling at this time returned up to 13.5 grams per tonne gold over 1.0 metre (Assessment Report 22440).