The Saanichton clay consists of light buff, non-calcareous surface clays used to manufacture brick and tile in the 1940's and 1950's but no production figures are available.

The clay is part of the Recent Capilano Sediments which also include sand, gravel and silt (Geological Survey of Canada Map 1553A).

This common clay consists mainly of a heterogeneous mixture of non-refractory clay minerals, quartz and feldspar. The clay minerals in them are mainly hydrous micas, montmorillonoids, chlorites or mixed-layer minerals. The refractory clay minerals of the kaolinite group are either absent or present only in trace amounts. The combination of these non-refractory clay minerals with quartz, feldspar and minor amounts of other minerals produces a low melting mixture with a short firing range. As a result, the clays have pyrometric cone equivalents of cones 2 (approximately 1142 degrees Celsius) to 4.5 (approximately 1172 degrees Celsius). Clays of this type are typically salmon to red-firing.