The Fain Creek prospect is located along a northeast-trending contact between amphibolite and greenschist facies metamorphic rocks to the southeast and greenstone to the northwest (DiMarchi and others, 1990). A mixed unit, possibly a foliated tectonic melange, separates the metamorphic rocks from the greenstone, and it underlies the area from which anomalous stream sediment samples have been taken. The mixed unit includes quartzite, chlorite-quartz schist, pelitic schist, graphitic schist, and minor marble. The greenstone package consists of metamorphosed basalt and diabase that are in possible thrust contact with pelitic schist. Locally, the greenstone and the metamorphic rocks are cut by pegmatite and aplite dikes that are probably related to the Melozitna pluton to the north (DiMarchi and others, 1990).

The granitic stock at Fain Creek is argillically and sericitically altered and contains 1 to 3 percent pyrite (Northstar Exploration Company, 1999).

Soil samples collected in the Fain Creek area contain as much as 115 parts per billion gold, 6.6 parts per million silver, 463 parts per million copper, 4,310 parts per million lead, 4,040 parts per million zinc, and 9,525 parts per million manganese associated with iron and manganese stained fractures in quartzite (Northstar Exploration Company, 1999).

Contrasting geochemical signatures at Fain Creek suggest the presence of two styles of mineralization that may be unrelated to each other: (1) gold-based mineralization associated with a quartz veining event, and (2) lead-based, silver/base-metal mineralization (DiMarchi and others, 1990).