The area lies along the eastern edge of Quesnellia, within the highly deformed structural belt that is referred to as the Kootenay Arc. Rocks of Quesnellia in the Nelson-Trail map area include the Early Jurassic Rossland Group sitting unconformably on Late Paleozoic metasediments, carbonates and minor etavolcanics of the Harper Creek Group. To the east, Late Proterozoic to Early Paleozoic platformal rocks mark the western faulted margin of the North American miogeocline. The area has been intensely deformed producing generally tight to isoclinal northeast to north trending folds that here roughly coincide with the North American– Quesnellia boundary.

Several phases of plutonic activity are recognized. Alkalic to subalkalic porphyritic leucodiorites and granodiorites, referred to as the Silver King intrusions, are exposed south of the Clubine property. They are dated as Early to Middle Jurassic (ca. 174-178 Ma; Höy and Dunne, 1997) and are interpreted to be the source of gold mineralization at Sultan Mineral's Keno property south of Nelson. Middle Jurassic plutons, part of the Nelson plutonic suite, occur throughout the Rossland-Salmo-Nelson area. They are associated with a variety of mineralized vein and skarn deposits along their margins, including the Ymir and Nelson Camps. The Rossland gold-copper veins occur within and along the margins of the Rossland monzodiorite, an early phase of the Nelson plutonic suite (Höy and Dunne, 2001). Early and Late Cretaceous granitic rocks postdate Jurassic deformation and metamorphism. Many are associated with tungsten and minor copper, gold and zinc mineralization (e.g., Invincible, Dodger, Emerald deposits south of Salmo). Eocene-age Coryell intrusions are typically alkaline; recently they have become the focus of epithermal gold-silver mineralization, with discovery of several new epithermal veins north of Castlegar (Kootenay Gold Corp.).