ROCK ROOM

Smithers Exploration Group's Collection of Cordilleran Rock Suites

Welcome to Smithers Exploration Group’s Rock Room, home to our classic collection of Cordilleran rock suites. This extensive collection of rock samples is representative of deposits and rock types from across British Columbia, with a focus on the northwest. It’s an important resource for the development of expertise on the geology of northern BC and the discovery of the next mines.

The collection was begun in the 1970s by local geologists and prospectors, as well as the BC Ministry of Mines, and was updated under the direction of former regional geologist Paul Wojdak. It is designed to give hands-on examples of the rocks that make up the regional geological framework of northern British Columbia. We are working hard to complete our collection: if there is a particular suite you are keen to see but we do not yet have, please let us know and we will prioritize the aquisition of those samples. If you have a suite that you would consider donating to help us fill in the gaps, please contact us.

The Rock Room occupies a spacious classroom at the Smithers Exploration Group office at #101 3423 Fulton Avenue in Smithers. We have almost 2000 rock samples catalogued, clearly labelled and stored in trays that can be removed for handling and close examination. The room is heated, well-lit and spacious .It is equipped with regular and zoom stereomicroscopes for detailed investigation.

The rock suites cover:

Plutonic
Volcanic
Sedimentary
Metamorphic
Stratigraphy
Mineral Deposits and Ore Deposit Types
Rock-forming and Ore Minerals

Call 250-877-7883 or email rockroom@smithersexplorationgroup.com if you have questions about the Rock Room or the donation requirements for samples.

SEG’s Rock Room with its Cordilleran Rock Suites will make Smithers home to a unique tool for explorationists. It will attract industry and government attention to Smithers as a community committed to the growth of the minerals industry in BC.

Browse the Rock Room Collection

Library No.	Suite Name	Location	Collector	Rock Name	Age	Description	Cart
S21-05	Skeena		T Richards	Red siltsone to slate		thin bedded; fine grained; gritty texture indicates detrital sand, siltstone, not shale	Add Item
S21-04	Skeena		T Richards	Fine sandstone		dark grey; massive; homogenous	Add Item
S21-03	Skeena		T Richards	Sandstone to siltstone		graded sand to silt in 10 cm thick beds; well bedded; similar greenish colour as above in sand layer grading to grey-black in fine layers	Add Item
S21-02	Skeena		T Richards	Coarse sandstone to conglomerate		massive; same greenish colour as above; round clasts to 1 cm; angular to rounded grains; possibly Smithers Formation?	Add Item
S21-01	Skeena		T Richards	Sandstone		massive, no bedding; homogenous; greenish; subround grains	Add Item
S19-27	Atlin	Anderson Bay, Anderson Bay basalt	M A Bloodgood	Olivine basalt		locally columnar	Add Item
S19-26	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Lapilli tuff		fine grained ash matrix	Add Item
S19-25	Atlin	Cache Creek Group, Sentinel Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Banded chert		contains radiolarian fossils	Add Item
S19-24	Atlin	Cache Creek Group, Sentinel Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Banded chert		red and green bands	Add Item
S19-23	Atlin	Sentinel Mountain, west flank	M A Bloodgood	Tectonized volcanic sediments		chert pebbles	Add Item
S19-22	Atlin	Laberge Group, Atlin Lk	M A Bloodgood	sandstone		quartz-rich	Add Item
S19-21	Atlin	Anderson Bay, Anderson Bay basalt	M A Bloodgood	Olivine basalt		locally columnar	Add Item
S19-20	Atlin	Cache Creek Group, Sentinel Mountain, north of head of Eldorado Creek	M A Bloodgood	Mylonitized gabbro		mineral lineation on top surface near tape label	Add Item
S19-19	Atlin		M A Bloodgood	Conglomerate		immature; rounded to very angular clasts	Add Item
S19-18	Atlin	Mt McCallum	M A Bloodgood	Rhyolite dike		cuts Sloko volcanics	Add Item
S19-17	Atlin	Sentinel Mountain, unnamed stratigraphic unit	M A Bloodgood		Triassic	calcareous; gritty sandstone; interbedded limestone has Norian conodonts	Add Item
S19-16	Atlin		M A Bloodgood	Granite pebble conglomerate		greywacke matrix; matrix supported	Add Item
S19-15	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Andesite dike		plagioclase and amphibole phyric; dike cuts Group A	Add Item
S19-14	Atlin	Cache Creek Group, Sentinel Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Amygdaloidal basalt			Add Item
S19-13	Atlin		M A Bloodgood	Greywacke			Add Item
S19-12	Atlin	Sloko Group, ridge west of Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Pebble conglomerate			Add Item
S19-11	Atlin	Sloko Group, ridge west of Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Conglomerate		lithic ash tuff clasts	Add Item
S19-10	Atlin	Sloko Group, ridge west of Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Sandstone			Add Item
S19-09	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Conglomerate		plagioclase porphyry clasts	Add Item
S19-08	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Volcanic sandstone		fine grained	Add Item
S19-07	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Tuff		laminated bed within volcanic breccia	Add Item
S19-06	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Ash tuff		laminated; siliceous	Add Item
S19-05	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Lapilli tuff		fine grained ash matrix	Add Item
S19-04	Atlin	Group A, Atlin Mountain	M A Bloodgood	Ash tuff		well bedded	Add Item
S19-03	Atlin	Fourth of July batholith, west shore of Atlin Lk, Safety Cove	M A Bloodgood	K-feldspar megacrystic granite			Add Item
S19-02	Atlin	Fourth of July batholith, west shore of Atlin Lk, Safety Cove	M A Bloodgood	Hornblende biotite granite			Add Item
S19-01	Atlin		M A Bloodgood	Greenstone mylonite		dark grey-green; strong fabric; limestone augen	Add Item
S18-56	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Sanidine porphyry trachyte	Cenozoic	65-70% light grey matrix; 25-30% coarse sanidine to 1 cm; 5% pyroxene, 1-3 mm size	Add Item
S18-55	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Airfall lapilli tuff	Cenozoic	very pale grey; heterolithic; clasts to 1 cm; low density; no welding or flow texture	Add Item
S18-54	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Spherulitic ash flow	Cenozoic	tight flow fold in strongly banded ash flow	Add Item
S18-53	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Spherulitic rhyolite	Cenozoic	25% concentric spherules, up to 1-2 cm diameter, pinish colour; 5% smaller (0.4 cm) white spherules commonly with black rim; 70% matrix that is grey and aphanitic surrounding the spherules and grades to finely crystalline late filling of the interstitial areas	Add Item
S18-52	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Obsidian	Cenozoic	black obsidian; minor streaky siliceous laminae (devitrification)	Add Item
S18-51	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Intermixed glaciofluvial gravel and obsidian	Cenozoic		Add Item
S18-50	Edziza Volcano	Pyramid Fm	J Souther	Volcanic glass	Cenozoic	interlayered glass and devitrified glass, interlayered on mm to cm scale	Add Item
S18-49	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Breccia, hydrothermally altered	Miocene	40% pale green matrix, mainly silica; 40% heterolithic clasts, leached, altered with 10% void space; probably hydrothermal vent breccia	Add Item
S18-48	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Felsic lapilli tuff	Miocene	grey; heterolithic; clasts to 3 cm, most are 5 mm or less; classts are white grey, some are welded, one is obsidian; some clasta are outlined by a black rim of ?? Unknown	Add Item
S18-47	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Felsic ash tuff	Miocene	layered, alternating finely vesicular bands; 5% clasts, <1 mm size	Add Item
S18-46	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Basalt?	Miocene	grey (too felsic for basalt?); 5-10% olivine(?); 3-4% plagioclase laths; 1% hornblende needles	Add Item
S18-45	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Felsic tuff	Miocene	pale brown matrix; 10-20% heterolithic clasts, <1 mm size, grey, red, other shades	Add Item
S18-44	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Feldspar crystal-lithic ash flow tuff	Miocene	black and pale orange-brown; strongly flow-aligned texture; 5% feldspar, 1-3 mm size; 10% lithic clasts to 2 cm	Add Item
S18-43	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Obsidian	Miocene	black rhyolite glass; 20% silica spherules, uniform 2 mm size	Add Item
S18-42	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Felsic tuff	Miocene	grey; finely laminated with white mm layers; one layer with unknown black crystal pseudomorphs, few mm in size	Add Item
S18-41	Edziza Volcano	Armadillo Fm	J Souther	Rhyolite ash flow	Miocene	light coloured; densely packed clasts, angular to rounded, mainly 0.5 cm but up to 1 cm; clasts are various shades of white and light to dark grey; locally welded texture	Add Item
S18-40	Edziza Volcano	Raspberry Fm	J Souther	Basalt	Cenozoic	3-4% olivine; 3-4% feldspar; sparse calcite amygdules, 1 mm size	Add Item
S18-39	Edziza Volcano	Raspberry Fm	J Souther	Basalt	Cenozoic	5% feldspar and amygdules, sub-mm size; most are amygdules of chalcedony and calcite, feldspars indicated by crystal shape	Add Item

Samples in your order cart

Library No.	Suite Name	Location	Collector	Rock Name	Age	Description	Cart
A5 04	Argillic Alteration		T Richards	Argillic spheroidal rhyolite		strong pervasive argillic alteration likely due to steam in a geothermal field; 10% spherules are mostly leached out to voids, some remaining silica and clay; iron oxidized to hematite; strong gossan weathering	Remove Item
D14-13	Bell Copper			Weathered massive chalcopyrite	Eocene		Remove Item
D14-14	Bell Copper			Quartz stockwork	Eocene	90% quartz-pyrite veins; 10% fragments with faintly visible intrusive texture but completely altered to powdery kaolinite	Remove Item
A5 02	Argillic Alteration		T Richards	Bladed feldspar porphyry andesite		30% plagioclase laths, 1-2 cm long, pale green in colour due to sausserite (zoisite / epidote) alteration; microcrystalline groundmass is dark green, likely chlorite altered	Remove Item
D4-07	Afton Mines - Ajax suite	Ajax West	Mine staff	Hybrid diorite (microdiorite)	Up Triassic	fine to medium grained, grey-green; equal proportion of chloritized mafics and plagioclase; minor py and epidote	Remove Item
D2-05	Premier Mine	2-level portal	D Alldrick	Semi-massive sulphide	Jurassic	50% py, 20% sph, 1% cpy; quartz and calcite gangue	Remove Item
D14-16	Bell Copper					30% coarse grained tarnished pyrite vein with trace qtz + calcite. 60% bleached biotite feldspar porphyry? Strong argillic alteration.	Remove Item
A4 11	Copper-Bearing Propylites		T Richards	Actinolite - quartz skarn breccia		dense, medium grained, prismatic actinolite with 10% rounded quartz "pebbles" that are linked by quartz-chalcopyrite stringers	Remove Item

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