The Lion area is underlain by dark grey to black grits and ash-rich argillaceous siltstones of the Salmon River Formation, which are underlain by a felsic tuff sequence of the Mount Dilworth Formation, both of the Lower Jurassic Hazelton Group.

The Lion occurrence lies on the southwest flank of the Dilworth Syncline. The Eocene Portland Canal dyke swarm trends perpendicular to the volcanic-sedimentary sequence.

A 340-degree striking mineralized zone cuts one of these dykes, which consist largely of quartz porphyry. The mineralization does not extend into the surrounding argillites on either side of the dyke which limits the length of the vein to about 6.6 metres. Probable mineralogy is sphalerite, galena, chalcopyrite, pyrite, polybasite and native silver. There are no known assays from this occurrence.

Work History

The Silver Hill property was originally staked by a Mr. Seymour Campbell. Silver Crest Mines, Limited was formed in October 1919 to take over the 11 claim group, including the Idaho, September Fr., and Argentite claims. The showings were prospected by open cutting until 1921. No further work was done until 1924 when underground development work was begun. The mineralization exposed by this work was disappointing and activities ceased in 1926. Underground work consists of two adits with a combined length of over 152 metres. The Lion group of 5 claims, the Lion Nos. 1, 2, & 3, Lion Fr., Tiger Fr. (Lots 4166-4169) were owned by D.B. Markill and W. Hobill, of Stewart. Some open cutting was done on the showings in 1927. The claims were Crown-granted in 1929.

An airborne geophysical survey was carried out in the area on behalf of Atna Mines in 1969 (Assessment Report 2320).

In 1991, Westmin Resources had an airborne magnetic and electromagnetic survey conducted over the Premier Gold property totalling 760 kilometres. This survey covered an extensive area from the south end near the Premier mine area, north to the Yellowstone area.

See also Yellowstone (104B 039) and Premier (104B 054) for related details of the Dilworth and Premier properties that were held as a single entity in the 2000s by Bolden and Ascot Resources.