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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T2-04 | VMS | Mt Sicker, Lenora Pit, Vancouver Is. | Argillite | Devonian | tight chevron fold; similar-type fold | ||
| T2-03 | VMS | Tyee deposit, Mt Sicker, Vancouver Is. | Quartz-sulphide vein (footwall stockwork?) | Devonian | 90% white quartz; 5% pyrite; 3% chalcopyrite; sulphides are disseminated, foliation parallel; does not appear to be recrystallized chert | ||
| T2-02 | VMS | Greens Creek, Alaska | Chloritic andesite (greenstone) | waxy green to white; slippery touch; low carbonate, very little acid response; possible sericite or talc | |||
| T2-01 | VMS | Mt Sicker, Vancouver Is. | Altered rhyolite tuff | Devonian | ivory to pale green; strongly laminated and schistose; 2% quartz eyes; 10-20% flattened lithic fragments with 5:1 length to width ratio | ||
| T1-15 | VMS | Anthophyllite footwall alteration | Archean | coarse, radiating anthophyllite; from metamorphosed footwall of an Archean VMS; magnesium enrichment characterizes Archean deposits, original chlorite converted to anthophyllite by regional metamorphism | |||
| T1-14 | VMS | Tyee, Mt Sicker, Vancouver Is. | Ferrocrete | Recent | iron-cemented surface talus and rubble; deceptive and common in hot dry climates such as Mexico | ||
| T1-13 | VMS | Lara deposit, Vancouver Is. | Rhyolite lapilli tuff (hanging wall) | Devonian | ivory to pale green; very well laminated; small quartz eyes; limonite weathering | ||
| T1-12 | VMS | Lara deposit, Vancouver Is. | Bedded sericite tuff (from hanging wall) | Devonian | light grey and green; well bedded; 40-50% sericite; 20% barite; 15% pyrite; 10% silica | ||
| T1-11 | VMS | Corbet mine, Noranda | Pyritic tuff | Archean | well bedded pyrite with minor chlorite beds; pyrite porphyroblasts to 1 cm grown across bedding; remobilized, cross-cutting chalcopyrite veinlets | ||
| T1-10 | VMS | Granduc | Chalcopyrite ore | Triassic | 60% chalcopyrite; 20% pyrite; 5% quartz augen (durchbewegung texture); in sharp contact with chlorite mafic volcanic rock, possibly a clast | ||
| T1-09 | VMS | HW deposit, Myra Falls | Polymetallic ore | Devonian | thick bedded pyrite (50%), chalcopyrite (5%), sphalerite (5%), galena ? With 20% barite and 20% silica | ||
| T1-08 | VMS | Windy Craggy | Massive pyrite | Triassic | very fine grained; no bedding; minor chlorite gangue | ||
| T1-07 | VMS | Kutcho deposit | Massive pyrite | Lower Triassic | 90% fine grained pyrite; trace bornite; likely to be minor chalcopyrite and sphalerite but cannot be identified | ||
| T1-06 | VMS | HW deposit, Myra Falls | Massive pyrite-chalcopyrite ore | Devonian | bedding defined by occassional thin silica bands | ||
| T1-05 | VMS | Tyee, Mt Sicker, Vancouver Is. | Polymetallic ore | Devonian | dense grey massive sulphide and weakly bedded barite; only pyrite and chalcopyrite are seen but sphalerite very likely present; 1 cm calcite blobs in massive sulphide formed by remobilization during deformation | ||
| A1 04 (missing) | VMS | Four Corners, Noranda | Bedded tuff | Archean | contains pyrite, cpy, sph, magnetite | ||
| T1-03 | VMS | HW deposit, Myra Falls | Silicified and sericitized basalt | very pale green to white; fine grained; schistose | |||
| T1-02 | VMS | Greens Creek, Alaska | Chlorite-altered andesite (greenstone) | dark green; foliated; grey limey laminations, 4-5 mm thick | |||
| T1-01 | VMS | Mt Sicker, Vancouver Is. | Rhyolite tuff | Devonian | ivory to pale green with streaky brown wisps; brown wisps probably arise from disseminated, foliation-parallel pyrite that is oxidized, enhanced by surface weathering; 2% quartz eyes; 5% feldspar phenocrysts; tuff banding flows around phenocrysts | ||
| P10-02 | Zoned Ultramafic plutons | Tulameen, Princeton | D Lefebure | Pyroxenite with sulphides | 40% pyroxene (or hornblende?); 60% pyrrhotite; 5% chalcopyrite; net texture results from crystallization from immiscible melts of silicate and sulphide; very strongly magnetic | ||
| P10-01 | Zoned Ultramafic plutons | Tulameen, Princeton | D Lefebure | Dunite | black; dense; fine grained; no distinct crystals; strongly magnetic | ||
| P9-15 | Kimberlites | Saskatchewan | L Hewitt | Kimberlite / Lamprophyre | 40% angular rock fragments, 0.5-1 cm; 20% olivine; 2% small pink garnets; pale mica (muscovite or phlogopite?) | ||
| P9-14 | Kimberlites | Ice River, Yoho Park, BC | Biotite lamprophyre | 10% olivine; 10% black pyroxene; 25% biotite phenocrysts to 4 cm size | |||
| P9-13 | Kimberlites | South Africa | Kimberlite | 25% olivine; 10% black pyroxene; 2% phlogopite; <5% pyrope garnet | |||
| P9-12 | Kimberlites | South Africa | Kimberlite | 25% angular sedimentary fragments; prominent olivine; minor pyrope garnet | |||
| P9-11 | Kimberlites | Biotite lamprophyre | 20% coarse hornblende; 10% coarse biotite in matrix of fine grained hornblende dike | ||||
| P9-10 | Kimberlites | Biotite lamprophyre | 30% biotite; medium brown groundmass | ||||
| P9-09 | Kimberlites | Premier (Cullinan) Mine, South Africa | C Fipke | Diamondiferous kimberlite | plastic bag of rubble | ||
| P9-08 | Kimberlites | Sloan 1, Colorado | C Fipke | Diamondiferous kimberlite | "yellow ground" at weathered surface of kimberlite; gossan; silicified | ||
| P9-07 | Kimberlites | Sloan 1, Colorado | C Fipke | Diamondiferous kimberlite | rounded clasts; 5% purple pyrope garnet (see weathered surface); picroilmenite, several black metallic grains | ||
| P9-06 | Kimberlites | Lac de Gras, Nunavut | C Fipke | Diamondiferous kimberlite | 25% large (to 1.5 cm) olivine megacrysts; one crystal of red-purple pyrope garnet | ||
| P9-05 | Kimberlites | Pannan, India | C Fipke | Lamprolite? | black; 30% black pyroxene | ||
| P9-04 | Kimberlites | Nunavut | C Fipke | Kimberlite | poor sample; 30% olivine; single crystal of chrome diopside visible; single pyrope garnet visible | ||
| P9-03 | Kimberlites | Point Lake, Nunavut | D McCurdy | Kimberlite | 25% olivine; 5% pyrope garnet; 5% chrome diopside; 5% brown mica (phlogopite); 50% rock fragments | ||
| P9-02 | Kimberlites | Point Lake, Nunavut | D McCurdy | Hornblendite | black; coarse grained; 90% hornblende; 5% feldspar; 5% poikiolitic biotite (phlogopite); 3 cm hornblende crystals visible by reflected light | ||
| P9-01 | Kimberlites | Point Lake, Nunavut | D McCurdy | Biotite garnet hornblendite | coarse grained; 60% hornblende; 30% feldspar; 5% biotite (phlogopite); 5% garnet | ||
| P8-17 | Alkaline Plutons | Giant Nickel, Hope BC | Hornblendite | 100% coarse grained hornblende; occurs as veins and lenses associated with gabbro and ultramafic rocks at the former Giant Nickel mine | |||
| P8-19 | Alkaline Plutons | Fluorite granite (or syenite?) | 50% fluorite (purple to colourless) and lesser (5%) quartz; 10% K-feldspar; 30% plagioclase; 10% muscovite | ||||
| P8-18 | Alkaline Plutons | Hornblende syenite | 25% zoned plagioclase phenocrysts; 65-70% K-feldspar as slightly smaller phenocrysts and interstitial; 5-10% hornblende (core) | ||||
| P8-16 | Alkaline Plutons | Galore Creek 104G 090 | Pseudo-leucite syenite porphyry | U Triassic | 10% zoned hexagonal pseudo-leucite to 3 cm; 20% trachytic pink K-feldspar to 1 cm; 70% grey, granular matrix comprised of plagioclase, hornblende and minor calcite; trace malachite | ||
| P8-15 | Alkaline Plutons | Galore Creek 104G 090 | Syenite porphyry | U Triassic | 10% euhedral K-feldspar (colour zoned from grey to white margin); 20% plagioclase; 8% hornblende; 60% fine grained matrix that may contain quartz | ||
| P8-14 | Alkaline Plutons | Mt Fleet, north of Kamloops | K-feldspar megacrystic syenomonzonite | 70% zoned K-feldspar megacrysts; fine granular matrix of plagioclase (15%) and quartz (5%); 5-10% biotite plus hornblende | |||
| P8-13 | Alkaline Plutons | Biotite syenite | 85-90% pink feldspar; 10% biotite, chloritic | ||||
| P8-12 | Alkaline Plutons | Quartz syenite | 85% pink K-feldspar (orthoclase); 10% plagioclase; 5% quartz in matrix; miarolytic cavitites in K-spar with very minor clear quartz crystals; few thin fragments of mica (biotite) | ||||
| P8-11 | Alkaline Plutons | Galore Creek 104G 090 | Garnet syenite | U Triassic | 30% pale tan,fractured garnet; 30% fractured plagioclase; 10% hornblende; garnet and feldspar are rimmed and infilled on fractures by 10% fine black mineral (hydrothermal biotite?), chalcopyrite and calcite (10% combined) | ||
| P8-10 | Alkaline Plutons | Mt Fleet, north of Kamloops | Trachytic syenite | 50-60% K-feldspar laths, prominent, elongate, oriented; 30% interstitial plagioclase; 10% fine biotite and magnetite between feldspar laths; nepheline is reported but not identified in hand specimen | |||
| P8-09 | Alkaline Plutons | Galore Creek 104G 090 | Garnet syenite | U Triassic | coarse grained; 50% pink K-feldspar; 20% plagioclase; 25% garnet; 5% hornblende; minor fine biotite, magnetite, chalcopyrite | ||
| P8-08 | Alkaline Plutons | Diabase (gabbro) | intergrown 60% plagioclase and 40% hornblende; minor chlorite and epidote alteration | ||||
| P8-07 | Alkaline Plutons | Galore Creek 104G 090 | Garnet monzo-diorite | U Triassic | 60% coarse, grey feldspar (plagioclase); 10% tan-colour garnet; 30% biotite and hornblende; 1% cpy and bornite | ||
| P8-06 | Alkaline Plutons | Driftwood River, Takla Lk | T Richards? | Syenodiorite or syenogabbro | Cretaceous | 60% plagioclase laths, elongate and oriented; 30% interstitial augite(?); 10% fine, interstitial K-feldspar (stained surface) |
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