The exploration at Bear Creek, or Medvedi Potok as it is locally known,  began as the result of a tin soil anomaly and ran from 1971-1981 by Geologický Prieskum, a state-owned enterprise.

During this period, they excavated 36 trenches, drilled 47 surface drill holes, 82 underground wholesale drill holes, two adits with a total length of 5,301m and one shaft of 10m depth.

Based on the exploration results 863 kt of ore with 0.19% Sn grade was calculated. The Sn rich parts of the Medvedi Potok deposit are found in veins, however the tonnage represents only 8% of the reserves (71 kt in total).