The Heather No. 4 showing is located near the head of the Bear River valley, just west of the Bear River Pass, about 1800 metres west-northwest of Strohn Lake and 200 metres south of the Stewart highway.
The area is underlain by subhorizontal to gently dipping andesitic rocks of the Lower Jurassic Unuk River Formation (Hazelton Group) (Bulletin 63). The iron formation unit which hosts the George Gold-Copper deposit (104A 029, 129), to the west, reportedly extends to the Heather area. An adit was driven below this unit.
Mineralization has been reported in several places on the Heather claims, but few details are available. On the Heather No. 4 claim (Lot 5365), a tunnel was driven on a north to north-northwest trending, steeply east-dipping zone. The zone contains a stringer of semimassive sulphides up to 25 centimetres wide. Selected grab samples collected from the tunnel during 1949-52 assayed up to 36.7 per cent zinc, 1.1 per cent lead and 24.0 grams per tonne silver (cited in Assessment Report 6382).
On the Heather No. 1 claim (Lot 5355), about 1000 metres to the south-southwest, two east-trending shears, up to 2.4 metres wide, are mineralized with pyrite, chalcopyrite and minor galena in a gangue of quartz and calcite (Minister of Mines Annual Report 1928).
In 1928, the George Enterprise Mining Company Ltd. acquired the Heather claims and conducted prospecting that year. Work, including tunnelling, was carried out intermittently between 1928 and 1950. In 1950, the tunnel was reported to be 15 metres long; no further work was reported. During 1976-78, Tournigan Mining Explorations Ltd. conducted reconnaissance geological studies in the area. In 1993, a work program on behalf of International Tournigan Corporation consisted of road and trail maintenance, exploration prospecting and a "Beep Mat" geophysical survey. During 2005 through 2010, Auramex completed programs of prospecting, geological mapping, geochemical sampling and airborne geophysical surveys on the area as the Bear River-Surprise Creek property.
