The M.C. No. 1 (Lot 4407) showing is located on the Bear River Ridge, about 2.5 kilometres west of the confluence of Bitter Creek and the Bear River, on the slopes above the Premier mine open pit (104B 054), 12 kilometres north of Stewart.
The area is underlain by north striking, steeply west dipping Lower Jurassic rocks of the Betty Creek Formation (Hazelton Group) comprising maroon to purple clastic sediments intercalated with andesite to dacite tuffs and breccias. North-northwest to northwest trending granodiorite, andesite and felsite dikes are conspicuous in the area (Assessment Report 7637).
The M.C. No. 1 showing is exposed in a trench, and a shaft 3 metres deep. Mineralization comprises a 0.3 metre wide quartz-carbonate vein, trending east and dipping 60 degrees south, containing up to 60 per cent sulphides. The sulphides comprise galena, sphalerite, chalcopyrite, tetrahedrite and minor pyrite; native gold and chalcocite have also been reported. In 1971, a chip sample assayed 1477.7 grams per tonne silver, 1.3 grams per tonne gold, 25.4 per cent zinc and 14.0 per cent lead across 0.4 metre (Assessment Report 3293). Bulletin 58 reports that selected samples assayed 5.5 grams per tonne gold, 17,314 to 18,857 grams per tonne silver, 1.47 per cent copper, 35.2 per cent lead and 19.2 per cent zinc. In 1974, 21 tonnes of ore, listed as production for the View Fr. occurrence (104A 075), may have come from this showing.
About 250 metres southwest of the M.C. No. 1 showing, a quartz-carbonate vein 0.2 metre wide and 5 metres long occurs in a fault zone. The fault zone trends 340 degrees and dips 65 degrees northeast. The vein contains pods of tetrahedrite that form up to 5 per cent of the vein (Assessment Report 12236).
Approximately 100 to 250 metres southwest of the last mentioned location, several narrow barren(?) quartz veins trend north-northwest, parallel to granodiorite dikes (Assessment Report 3293). The vein is reported to contain pyrite, galena, sphalerite, tetrahedrite and minor argentite and ruby silver (pyrargyrite). Secondary copper minerals were also identified in these veins (Bulletin 58).
The M.C. claims were staked by Mackenzie in 1920. In 1922, the M.C. Mining Company Limited was formed and acquired the claims. Exploration that year comprised opencuts and pits; two holes were drilled on the upper showings. The M.C. Mining Company of British Columbia Limited was formed in 1923 and acquired the claims. No further work was reported until 1968 when Erin Explorations Ltd. carried out trenching and sampling on the old showings and located several more veins. In 1970, Marlex Mining Corp. Ltd. acquired the M.C. claims and carried out soil geochemical and magnetometer surveys. The following year Marlex Enviro-Systems and Resources Ltd. carried out further soil geochemical surveys, a VLF-EM survey, geological mapping and sampling. In 1979, Ocean Home Exploration Ltd. conducted further geological mapping and sampling. In 1983, Esso Resources Canada Limited performed further mapping and sampling on the M.C. claims.
