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File Created: 20-Sep-1989 by Peter S. Fischl (PSF)
Last Edit:  20-Sep-1989 by Peter S. Fischl (PSF)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name GRAND FORKS QUARTZITE, V.T.S. QUARRY, RAMSHEAD QUARRIES Mining Division Greenwood
BCGS Map 082E009
Status Past Producer NTS Map 082E01W
Latitude 049º 01' 53'' UTM 11 (NAD 83)
Longitude 118º 22' 26'' Northing 5431854
Easting 399575
Commodities Quartzite, Dimension Stone, Building Stone, Silica Deposit Types R07 : Silica sandstone
R06 : Dimension stone - sandstone
Tectonic Belt Omineca Terrane Quesnel
Capsule Geology

A silica quarry is situated 200 metres north of Highway 3, 1 kilometre east of Morrissey Creek, some 4.5 kilometres east of Grand Forks. Quartzite has been periodically quarried here since 1969.

The quarry exposes 3 layers of quartzite interbedded with micaceous gneiss (biotite schist) of the Proterozoic and possibly Paleozoic Grand Forks Gneiss. These beds strike northwest and dip approximately 70 degrees southwest. The sequence is intruded by bodies of pegmatitic gneiss (alaskite).

The quartzite is coarse grained and white to golden in colour. The rock is comprised of clear, glassy quartz grains up to 6 millimetres in diameter with scattered grains of feldspar, sericite, biotite, chlorite, garnet and pyrite. The pyrite is commonly altered to hematite, giving the rock its distinctive golden colour. The deposit is estimated to contain 4.5 million tonnes of quartzite in the immediate vicinity of the quarry (Assessment Report 13176, p. 4).

The quartzite was quarried by Ramshead Quarries Ltd. and Sebac Enterprises Ltd. between 1969 and 1971 for building stone but no production figures are available. V.T.S. Quarry Ltd. carried out some mapping in 1984.

Bibliography
EMPR ASS RPT *13176
EMPR GEM 1969-384; *1970-490,491; 1971-455
GSC MAP 6-1957; 1736A
GSC OF 481; 1969
GSC P 69-22, p. 8

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