The Daniels prospect was first identified by BHP-Utah in 1995 as an area anomalous in arsenic and gold in soils. Subsequently, they drilled 10 holes in the area before they dropped the property in 1990 (Stevens, 2010). In 2008, Millrock Resources Inc. began exploring in the area under an agreement with Bering Straits Native Corporation. As of early 2010, Millrace's work on the Daniels prospect included geologic mapping and sampling, reanalysis of some of the BHP core, and geochemical soil surveys (Millrock Resources Inc., 2010 [Bering Straits]). They also drilled 4 short holes in 2008 that totaled only 809 feet. The drilling was poorly done and the core recovery was poor. In 2010, Millrock and its partner Valdez Gold Inc. drilled 24 holes, 130-meters deep, in fences of holes (Millrock, 2010 [Millrock and Valdez Gold]).

There was at least some early exploration in the area as there is a small dump at a caved shaft near the center of the area; parts for a small mill are nearby but it apparently was never put in operation. The Bureau of Mines dug several trenches about 1970 Mulligan (1971). The Daniels prospect is essentially contiguous to and a geologic extension of the Saddle prospect (SO175); they were described separately by BHP-Utah as a convenience.

The Daniels prospect is near the center of an arcuate band of Paleozoic schist about three miles long and up to a half mile wide that extends from the mouth of Korean Creek to the mouth of Daniels Creek (Herreid, 1965; Mulligan, 1971; Till and others, 1986). This schist unit hosts most of the lode deposits in the Bluff area, including the Koyana (SO176), Saddle (SO175), and Idaho (SO135) prospects. The schist is bordered to the north and south by thick, extensive marble; the schist-marble contacts are probably thrust fault.

There is little outcrop in the Daniels prospect area and much of the information about the mineralization comes from the 10 BHP-Utah drill holes, the 4 holes drilled by Millrock in 2008, and the 24 holes drilled by Millrock and Valdez Gold in 2010. As described by Ford (1993) and Ford and Snee (1996), the mineralization at the Daniels prospect consists of quartz veins localized in extensional joints that strike easterly and dip moderately to the south in quartz-muscovite schist. The veins are discontinuous and commonly less than 3 inches thick. Gold grades are erratic but vein intersections up to 3.3 feet across contain up to 1.8 ounces of gold per ton. The quartz veins frequently contain a few percent of ore minerals, mainly arsenopyrite, but marcasite, pyrite, and pyrrhotite occur in small amounts.

The four short holes drilled by Millrock in 2008 were in quartz-muscovite schist, graphitic schist, marble and gouge (Stevens, 2009). The best intercepts were 5.94 meters that contained 1.397 grams of gold per tonne and 1.37 meters that contained 3.819 grams of gold per tonne. The 2010 drilling (Millrock, 2010 [Millrock and Valdez Gold]) extended the mineralized zone to a strike length of 960 meters. The best intersection was 32.0 meters with 3.8 grams of gold per tonne.

A sample of oxidized arsenopyrite-rich dump material beside an old shaft in about the center of the Daniels prospect contained 2.76 ounces of gold per ton and 1.49 ounces of silver per ton; eight other samples of dump materials contained 0.03 to 0.23 ounces of gold per ton and 0.03 to 1.57 ounces of silver per ton (Herreid, 1965). Herreid (1965) reports that scheelite can be panned from some dump materials. Several chip samples from dozer trenches cut across the north-trending schist belt in the area were locally mineralized and included some 10-foot intervals with up to 0.04 ounce of gold Au per ton (Mulligan, 1971). Quartz-clay veinlets were common in the mineralized parts of the trench exposures. One high grade sample collected in 2009 near or at the old shaft contained 0.1 part per million (ppm) silver, 13.82 ppm gold, 10,000 or more ppm arsenic, 140 ppm bismuth, 1,000 ppm cadmium, 265 ppm copper, 611 ppm lead, 597 ppm antimony, and 27 ppm zinc.

The veins are commonly bordered by altered zones with plagioclase, chlorite, carbonate, white mica, biotite, titanite, and tourmaline. A sample of white mica from a quartz vein gave a Ar/Ar plateau date of 109.1 +/- 0.2 Ma and metamorphic white mica in the host schist gave Ar/Ar total gas dates of 122.6 +/- 0.4 Ma and 122.4 +/- 0.2 Ma (Ford and Snee, 1996). This indicates that the mineralization at Saddle is Late Cretaceous and probably related to regional metamorphism as are many other deposits on the Seward Peninsula (Apodoca, 1994; Hudson, 1994; Ford, 1993, Ford and Snee, 1996; Goldfarb and others, 1997).