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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| M7-18 | Skarns | Wollastonite skarn | massive | ||||
| M7-17 | Skarns | Unknown | plastic bag; dark grey fine grained rock with fine chalcopyrite; covered in white non-calcareous powder | ||||
| M7-16 | Skarns | Hedley | Arsenopyrite skarn | 10% arsenopyrite band in epidote-pyroxene skarn; minor pyrite and chalcopyrite | |||
| M7-15 | Skarns | Hedley, Nickel Plate | Skarn | Bladed arsenopyrite with garnet and pyroxene? | |||
| M7-14 | Skarns | Hedley | Massive sulphide | coarse grained; pyrite porphyroblasts; pyrrhotite; chalcopyrite | |||
| M7-13 | Skarns | Calcite-garnet-epidote skarn | orange calcite; minor chalcopyrite | ||||
| M7-12 | Skarns | Weathered magnetite with copper | no primary copper mineral, all malachite | ||||
| M7-11 | Skarns | Hedley | Arsenopyrite skarn | intergrowths of coarse crystalline calcite and arsenopyrite | |||
| M7-10 | Skarns | Hedley, French mine | Skarn | black biotite hornfels (boudin) altered to K-feldspar-diopside skarn; bands of epidote-garnet | |||
| M7-09 | Skarns | Hedley | Skarn | well bedded, light and dark bands; pale grey bands with quartz, calcite, chalcopyrite; dark green pyroxene(?) bands; chalcopyrite in light bands has minor specular hematite; less abundant chalcopyrite in dark bands has peripheral magnetite (an overgrowth); cpy appears to be concentrated along the boundary (reaction front?) between light and dark bands | |||
| M7-08 | Skarns | Hedley, Mascot | Skarn | similar to M7-07 but with breccia texture | |||
| M7-07 | Skarns | Hedley, Nickel Plate | Skarn | mottled purple-black biotite hornfels and massive, pale grey-green marble with light green epidote or pyroxene; pink K-feldspar developed along the contact between the two layers | |||
| M7-06 | Skarns | Hedley | Pyroxene skarn & Biotite hornfels | marbled texture; disrupted bands of biotite hornfels and deformed, fine grained pale grey-green skarn; faint pink K-feldspar developed in a reaction front near the boundary of the contrasting compositions | |||
| M7-05 (missing) | Skarns | Phoenix | alternating beds of impure carbonate and limey siltstone; altered to skarn; cpy is selective along calcite beds | ||||
| M7-04 | Skarns | Phoenix | Massive chalcopyrite ore | ||||
| M7-03 (missing) | Skarns | Phoenix | Bedded skarn (copper-gold ore) | alternating bands of impure carbonate and limey silstone; green amphibole, hematite, pyrite, cpy; cpy along calcite veins; "ore bed appears to have been replaced by a single crystal of calcite" | |||
| M7-02 | Skarns | Phoenix, Oro Denoro | B N Church | Epidote-pyroxene skarn | medium to dark green; banded; minor calcite; 1% chalcopyrite | ||
| M7-01 | Skarns | Phoenix, Davis Keayes | Massive chalcopyrite ore | 85% chalcopyrite; 15% wispy layers of grey to white quartz | |||
| M6-19 | Skarns | Banded garnet-wollastonite skarn | 50% brown garnet; 40% wollastonite with minor calcite; 10% pale green silica (original chert beds?) | ||||
| M6-18 | Skarns | Quartz pebble epidote skarn ?? | 10% rounded quartz pebbles up to 1 cm, not clast supported; 90% light green, featureless epidote; no calcite | ||||
| M6-17 | Skarns | Pyroxene-garnet skarn | medium grained; disrupted (tectonized) layers | ||||
| M6-16 | Skarns | Bedded siliceous skarn or hornfels | very fine grained, minerals cannot be discerned; banded with very pale green and dark green layers; dark layers are discontinuous, boudinaged; very little, if any calcite | ||||
| M6-15 (missing) | Skarns | ||||||
| M6-14 | Skarns | Garnet skarn (mineralized) | 73% garnet; 15% epidote and minor dark green pyroxene(?); 8% chalcopyrite; 2% magnetite; 2% calcite | ||||
| M6-13 (missing) | Skarns | ||||||
| M6-12 | Skarns | Banded garnet skarn | 30% garnet; 70% calcite; layers (or bands) are disrupted and folded | ||||
| M6-11 | Skarns | Meta-Chert | light grey; finely laminated; concoidal fracture | ||||
| M6-10 | Skarns | Pyroxene-garnet-epidote skarn | discontinuous black bands or lenses of pyroxene with minor quartz, and epidote-garnet bands with minor calcite; chalcopyrite is prevalent in epidote-garnet bands | ||||
| M6-09 | Skarns | Scotland | G Ray | Biotite hornfels with skarn band | calcite-pyroxene-garnet skarn along fracture in biotite hornfelsl py and cpy disseminated in hornfels; grey-green pyroxene occurs along fractures and veinlets in hornfels and as a 1-2 cm margin along the main skarn band; in the skarn band garnet is adjacent pyroxene then fine grained granular calcite | ||
| M6-08 | Skarns | G Ray | Calcite-pyroxene-chalcopyrite-hematite skarn | 20% calcite; 20% pyroxene; 30% cpy and py; 30% specular hematite; pale pink to white calcite occurs as one coarse grained band and as medium grained gangue in the cpy-py areas; pyroxene is gry-green, fine grained; cpy and py occur as fine blebs and crude bands; hematite (dark steel silvery grey) is crudely banded, coarse grained, weakly magnetic | |||
| M6-07 | Skarns | G Ray | Massive calcite with talc | pale orange-white massive calcite with flat crystal faces; 20% talc as pale green, radiating knots; one clast of dark grey, fine grained, limey wallrock; calcite vein selvage has orange-brown siderite/ankeriter; usty limonite on one weathered surface; another weathered surface is pocked due to weathered talc | |||
| M6-06 | Skarns | G Ray | Calcite-quartz-epidote-garnet skarn | 60% garnet (fine grained, red-brown) is mottled with green, fine grained pyroxene; coarse calcite (pale green-white to pink-orange) is associated with light grey-white quartz; epidote to 4 cm occurs within a coarse calcite-quartz patch, striated along their length; 5% magnetite mostly associated with calcite but also disseminated; cpy as a speck within magnetite | |||
| M6-05 | Skarns | Hope | G Ray | Marble | light grey-white; coarse grained | ||
| M6-04 | Skarns | G Ray | Calcite-epidote-garnet skarn | 50% garnet (red-brown, fine grained); 15% diopside (medium to dark green, fine grained); 15% calcite-quartz; 15% epidote (small, fine blebs throughout); 5% magnetite; few epidote to 3 cm with striated crystal faces; pink calcite and white quartz are associated, fine grained | |||
| M6-03 | Skarns | G Ray | Wollastonite-pyroxene-marble skarn | grey to white marble; large areas of medium to dark green pyroxene (diopside?); wollastonite forms pale pink-white rims around pyroxene 1-2 cm wide; minor wollastonite between pyroxene grains. Wollastonite rims tend to be radiating; dark orange rim occurs locally between pyroxene and wollastonite and likely represents a reaction rim of fine grained garnet; very minor py | |||
| M6-02 | Skarns | G Ray | Epidote-garnet-pyroxene-marble skarn | 15% epidote (apple green); 20% garnet (poorly formed almandine or pyrope); 25% pyroxene (diopside?); 40% marble; epidote occurs as blebs within marble and as fine blebs in pyroxene; garnet occurs as reaction rims between pyroxene and marble; marble is white, recrystallized limestone, some 1.5 cm calcite has not recrystallized | |||
| M6-01 | Skarns | G Ray | Magnetite skarn | dark grey-black; medium grained; heavy; massive magnetite; 2% py, cpy, molybdenite and bornite as small blebs | |||
| M5-13 | Sedimentary Hornfels | Kitsault, Bell Moly | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Biotite hornfels with quartz vein stockwork | mottled purple-brown and pale grey; massive; very fine grained; colour indicates strong biotite development; random orientation of quartz veinlets. Outer halo of moly deposit | ||
| M5-12 | Sedimentary Hornfels | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Biotite siltstone hornfels | finely laminated with light, silty and dark, argillaceous beds; pink tints in dark beds, colour and sheen indicate biotite development; siliceous beds are unchanged | |||
| M5-11 (missing) | Sedimentary Hornfels | ||||||
| M5-10 | Sedimentary Hornfels | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Argillite | dark grey; massive; very prominent conchoidal fracture (but apparently non-metamorphosed | |||
| M5-09 | Sedimentary Hornfels | Slesse Creek, Chilliwack valley | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Spotted hornfels | dark grey; 30% mm-scale light-coloured spots, possibly andalusite | ||
| M5-08 | Sedimentary Hornfels | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Hornfels siltstone and calcareous siltstone | purply-black layers are biotite-rich; light grey-green layers are skarn, may contain pyroxene and epidote | |||
| M5-07 | Sedimentary Hornfels | Taghum bridge, Nelson | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Interbedded biotite and calc-silicate hornfels | Hall Fm | grey to black and white; well banded on cm scale; dark grey beds are shaley converted to biotite hornfels; light, limy beds are converted to skarn calc-silicate assemblage | |
| M5-06 | Sedimentary Hornfels | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Greywack hornfels | medium grey; cm scale sandy beds with argillaceous tops; weak fracture cleavage crosses bedding | |||
| M5-05 | Sedimentary Hornfels | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Conglomerate hornfels | drill core; dark grey; massive; light colour cobbles to 1 cm in brown-tinted (biotitic) groundmass | |||
| M5-04 | Sedimentary Hornfels | Hope | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Conglomerate (no hornfels) | Eocene | same conglomerate as M5-03 without contact metamorphic affect | |
| M5-03 | Sedimentary Hornfels | Hope | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Conglomerate hornfels | Eocene | cobbles to several cm; cobble lithologies are argillite (predominant), granitic, quartz, feldspar andesite; similar fracturing of cobbles and matrix is due to (contact) metamorphism | |
| M5-02 | Sedimentary Hornfels | Scotland, type locality | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Hornfels | dark brown and black; very fine grained; massive conchoidal fracture; likely contains biotite | ||
| M5-01 | Sedimentary Hornfels | T Richards? & P Wojdak | Biotite hornfels | dark brown; very fine grained; massive; subconchoidal fracture; faint purple (blue?) colour may be cordierite |
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