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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| D23-10 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Ash flow tuff | pervasive kaolinite; argillic alteration; no introduced quartz | |||
| D23-09 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Clay-altered shear zone | hard; very silicic; blebs to pods, arranged like beads on a string, consist of clear quartz crystals and cinnabar | |||
| D23-08 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Quartz phyric ash flow tuff | intense clay alteration; abundant thin vuggy quartz veinlets with 1 cm rusty selvages; ore grade | |||
| D23-07 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Quartz phyric ash flow tuff | pinkish-white; similar to D23-06 but more strongly altered, feldspar crystals cannot be recognized; 5% quartz crystals; clay alteration10% rock fragments; 5% voids due to leaching | |||
| D23-06 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Quartz phyric ash flow tuff | buff to white; breccia texture; 3-5% quartz crystals; 50% strongly kaolin-altered feldspar is hard to recognize; 10% rock fragments; 3-5% voids due to strong leaching; not ore | |||
| D23-05 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Ash flow tuff | pale buff to white; 5-10% euhedral to broken quartz crystals; 40% feldspar altered to chalky kaolinite; 50% aphanitic matrix; not ore | |||
| D23-04 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Argillic quartz phyric ash flow tuff | 10% broken quartz crystals; 40-50% feldspar altered to kaolinite; 30-40% glassy vitreous to white matrix; ash flow texture obliterated | |||
| D23-03 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Propylitic quartz phyric ash flow tuff | light grey to pale green; 25% euhedral and broken quartz crystals; 15% altered feldspar, plagioclase is sausseritized, K-feldspar is altered to kaolin | |||
| D23-02 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Argillized quartz phyric ash tuff | mottled pink and white; broken quartz crystals in fragments and matrix; clay developed; chalcedonic quartz veins rim fragments | |||
| D23- 01 | Round Mountain | P Wojdak | Biotite quartz phyric ash flow tuff | 25% euhedral and broken quartz phenocrysts, some are purplish amethyst; 15% altered feldspar; 2% euhedral biotite; 58% light pink aphanitic matrix; host for gold ore | |||
| D22-16 | Blackdome | Brecciated rhyolite infilled with quartz | Teritary (Miocene?) | rhyolite is grey, aphanitic, very hard, rusty weathered; quartz veining is vuggy, ranges from coarse, coxcomb textured to banded grey chalcedony | |||
| D22-15 | Blackdome | Flow-banded rhyolite breccia | Teritary (Miocene?) | green on fresh, cut surface is probably celadonite, an alteration mica; green on weathered surface appears to be a mix of celadonite and malachite? | |||
| D22-14 | Blackdome | Rhyolite breccia | Teritary (Miocene?) | heterolithic clasts; several argillic altered clasts that are white to pale green; most of the rock is silicified with vuggy, introduced quartz; trace pyrite | |||
| D22-13 | Blackdome | Epithermal quartz vein | Teritary (Miocene?) | vuggy; frothy (bubbly) texture coated with fine quartz crystals; coxcomb texture; local chalcedonic banding; one instance (circled) bladed quartz that replaced calcite during boiling, an important mechanism for gold deposition in epithermal veins | |||
| D22-12 | Blackdome | Basalt | Teritary (Miocene?) | medium grey; aphyric; fresh, not altered; unit overlies mineralization | |||
| D22-10 | Blackdome | Volcanic breccia | Teritary (Miocene?) | monomictic, angular clasts, no displacement of clasts; greenish matrix suggests pervasive chlorite, propylitic alteration; minor quartz veinlets | |||
| D22-09 | Blackdome | Argillic-altered felsic volcanic | Teritary (Miocene?) | beige; pervasive clay and perhaps secondary chlorite alteration; vuggy quartz veinlet | |||
| D22-08 | Blackdome | Rusty quartz vein | Teritary (Miocene?) | elongate quartz crystals; coxcomb texture; fracture coating of clay and very fine sericite; limonite weathering | |||
| D22-07 | Blackdome | Silicified (hydrothermal?) breccia | Teritary (Miocene?) | heterolithic clasts; clasts are rounded (milled); multiple breccia events?; quartz flooding, silicification of fragments; vuggy quartz; trace sulphides; early propylitic alteration; gossan stain on weathered surface | |||
| D22-06 | Blackdome | Propylitic andesite | Teritary (Miocene?) | pale green; 1% feldspar laths; possibly fragmental; sparse quartz veinlets | |||
| D22-05 | Blackdome | Propylitic andesite | Teritary (Miocene?) | remnant feldspar; green matrix; quartz-(pyrite) veins | |||
| D22-04 | Blackdome | Felsic volcanic breccia | Teritary (Miocene?) | kaolinite-altered felsic clasts; green altered (propylitic) matrix; fine quartz veinlets and flooding to heal breccia, vuggy; two ages of quartz, early veinlets terminate at clast boundary, later veinlets cross clasts and matrix | |||
| D22-03 | Blackdome | Kaolinized, flow-banded rhyolite | Teritary (Miocene?) | <1% feldspar (probably K-spar; no quartz eyes; strongly fractured; fracture veinlets of fine grained chlorite, probably introduced; | |||
| D22-02 (missing) | Blackdome | Propylitic rhyolite | Teritary (Miocene?) | plagioclase phenocrysts, epidote altered | |||
| D22- 01 | Blackdome | Fractured rhyolite | Teritary (Miocene?) | highly fractured; flooded with silica; vuggy; minor sulphides | |||
| D21-122 | Windy Craggy | 10069E N xcut | Basalt | Fine grained greenstone basalt with pyrite seam | |||
| D21-17 | Windy Craggy | undocumented | Magnetite-pyrite rock | Up Triassic | 30% euhedral pyrite, 0.5 cm porphyroblasts; 65-70% magnetite; <5% calcite | ||
| D21-21 | Windy Craggy | 10283E N xcut | D Lefebure | Massive pyrite | Up Triassic | minor chalcopyrite | |
| D21-20 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Massive pyrite | Up Triassic | minor pyrrhotite; calcite gangue | ||
| D21-19 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Andesite-diorite or sandstone? | Up Triassic | grey; difficult rock; foliated; calcareous | ||
| D21-18 | Windy Craggy | 10359E N xcut | D Lefebure | Sulphide breccia | Up Triassic | pyrite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite | |
| D21-16 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Sulphide ore | Up Triassic | six piece of massive sulphide, range to finely laminated, varying proportions of pyrite, pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite | ||
| D21-15 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Andesite | Up Triassic | indistinct texture; feldspar phenocrysts; pyrrhotite blebs; slightly altered | ||
| D21-14 | Windy Craggy | Surface | D Lefebure | Volcanic sandstone | Up Triassic | light grey; granular texture | |
| D21-13 | Windy Craggy | 10048E N xcut | D Lefebure | Argillite or basalt | Up Triassic | dark green; fine grained; accessory pyrrhotite and chalcopyrite | |
| D21-12 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Chloritic mafic volcanic with sulphides | Up Triassic | sulphide clasts(?) consist of sphalerite, chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite | ||
| D21-11 | Windy Craggy | 10437E N xcut | D Lefebure | Black gritty argillite | Up Triassic | sandy(?) balls 0.5 - 2 cm, a sedimentary structure of unknown origin; spotted texture in argillite is probably feldspar or rock fragments(?) | |
| D21-10 | Windy Craggy | S xcut | D Lefebure | Greenstone / basalt | Up Triassic | near black; very fine grained; aphyric; massive, no texture | |
| D21-09 | Windy Craggy | 10053E N xcut | D Lefebure | Argillite with gritty clasts | Up Triassic | black fine grained; 20% clasts, 1-2 cm size, of indeterminate composition and origin, lack lack internal structure as would a nodule | |
| D21-08 | Windy Craggy | 10888 N drift | D Lefebure | Tuffaceous cherty exhalite | Up Triassic | light to dark grey; finely laminated; chert beds are internally irregular, appear recrystallized | |
| D21-07 | Windy Craggy | 10205E N xcut | D Lefebure | Volcanic sandstone (2 specimens) & diabase (1 specimen) | Up Triassic | small glassy crystals in sandston may be feldspar; bedding defined by thin pyrite seams; sphalerite(?) as brownish bands. Third specimen is similar to D21-04; up to 5% feldspar and mafic crystals, <1 mm size; sparse calcite amygdules to 3 mm | |
| D21-06 | Windy Craggy | 10870 N drift | D Lefebure | Pyritic jasper and cherty tuff | Up Triassic | purple and dark grey; pyrite in cherty tuff layers; interpreted as chemical sediment (exhalite) | |
| D21-05 | Windy Craggy | 10383 N xcut | D Lefebure | Basalt or basaltic sediment with cordierite | Up Triassic | dark green-black; massive, no layering; 70% aphanitic groundmass; 30% spots, reported to be cordierite, 1 mm size, tend to be hexagonal shape; possibly magnesium footwall alteration (dalmatianite) | |
| D21-04 | Windy Craggy | 10930 N drift | D Lefebure | Altered diabase | Up Triassic | light green-grey; fine to medium grained; no discernible primary minerals; pervasive propylitic alteration, including calcite; minor pyrite | |
| D21-03 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Calcareous siltsone with interbedded chert | Up Triassic | well bedded; 0.5 cm interbeds of chert alternate 1-2 cm siltsone beds | ||
| D21-02 | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Calcareous black shale | Up Triassic | minor pyrite-chalcopyrite beds, 3 mm thick | ||
| D21- 01 (missing) | Windy Craggy | D Lefebure | Chert | Up Triassic | grey; hematitic bands; pyrrhotite-pyrite bands | ||
| D20-10 | Kemess South | M Rebagliati | Supergene monzodiorite | large cut slab - supergene alteration in monzodiorite, 5% tectonically disrupted quartz veins; veinlets of native copper | |||
| D20-09 | Kemess South | M Rebagliati | Conglomerate | Jurassic? | red; heterolithic; variable red hematitic colour of clasts | ||
| D20-08 | Kemess South | M Rebagliati | Altered plagioclase microporphyry monzodiorite | similar to D20-07; plagioclase is sausseritized; abundant secondary biotite pervasive and in veinlets; hairline pyrite fractures; trace chalcopyrite |
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