Ruby Creek flows south into the west end of Surprise Lake about 22 kilometres northeast of the community of Atlin. The creek is about 10 kilometres long and braids into several streams at its mouth.

Most of the gold was removed from the creek between 1898 and 1948 with both hydraulic and underground operations. Drifting was done on bedrock accessed by one main decline. All of the hydraulic work occurred at the lower end of the creek. Between the years 1906 and 1945, a total of 1,721,178 grams of gold were recovered, the fourth highest producer in Atlin (Bulletin 28).

The pay channel at Ruby Creek cuts through the Surprise Lake batholith of Late Cretaceous age (70.6 +/- 3.8 Ma; Christopher, 1982). It is a large pluton covering about 1100 square kilometres and ranges in composition from monzonite to granite (fine-grained alaskite) to syenite containing minor biotite and no hornblende. The gravels overlying the pluton are up to 6 metres thick, and like many other streams in the area, have the richest returns in the bottom 2 metres immediately above bedrock. Capping the gravels is a 20 to 40 metres thick, columnar jointed, olive basalt flow covered by an additional 20 to 40 metres of air-fall ash material called scoria. The flow is about 100,000 years old.

In 1978, the gravels were explored for their uranium content and was found to range from 0.02 to 0.013 per cent from the base to the gravel tops (see RU, 104N 061 located 430 metres south). The increase in uranium upwards in the gravel is reverse of the gold distribution. The uranium is present as the oxide, zeunerite. The Surprise Lake batholith is known to have anomalous uranium and is likely the source for Ruby Creek. Gem quality rubies, as corundum, were also reported from this creek.

In 2002, prospection was done by William B Wallis on the B&B and B&W 1&2 claims, who is the owner of these claims as well.

In 2016, two holes were drilled by Global Drilling Solutions on behalf of Zinex Mining Corporation on the Ruby Creek Property, targeting native gold. In 2017, Global conducted extensive geochemical sampling on this property, as well as further drilling and ground geophysics. In 2018, Global carried out further geochemical sampling on the property, and in 2019 they continued work in this region, in the form of prospection, geochemical surveying and a ground geophysical survey. In 2021, an airborne SkyTEM survey was conducted by Stuhini Exploration on the Ruby Creek property, which revealed a number of regional trends across the property.