The Anderson Bay deposit is located just west of Anderson Bay on the southeast coast of Texada Island, 43 kilometres northwest of Nanaimo. Marble was produced from several quarries up to 1917.
A 37 to 60 metre thick limestone bed of the Mississippian to Permian Buttle Lake Group extends northward for 1.7 kilometres and is unconformably overlain by Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation (Vancouver Group) amygdaloidal basaltic flows, and underlain by Paleozoic Sicker Group mafic breccias, grey argillites and aphanitic volcanics. Bedding strikes north to northwest and dips 30 to 60 degrees west. The limestone bed pinches out to the south and is truncated to the north by a fault extending northwest from Anderson Bay.
The deposit is comprised of coarse to fine-grained white to reddish brown crinoidal limestone. The lower 12 to 15 metres consists of white to pink crinoidal limestone that grades upward into 9 to 15 metres of banded pink to red crinoidal limestone containing some jasper. This is overlain by red and green tuffaceous limestone. Magnesian and high calcium beds are found in the upper portion of the deposit. Lenticular masses of fine-grained pink dolomite veined with white calcite occur near the north end of the deposit. A sample from one of these assayed 33.02 per cent CaO, 16.20 per cent MgO, 4.94 per cent SiO2, 0.85 cent Al2O3 and 1.56 per cent Fe2O3 (CANMET Report 811, page 157). Four chip samples taken in succession across a total stratigraphic thickness of 53 metres averaged 48.4 per cent CaO, 2.8 per cent MgO, 2.9 per cent insolubles, 1.7 per cent R2O3, 0.92 per cent Fe2O3, 0.065 per cent MnO, 0.13 per cent P2O5, 0.004 per cent sulphur and 42.95 ignition loss (Bulletin 40, page 49).
Two small quarries were opened on this deposit in the early 1900's. Nootka Quarries operated a quarry on Lot 26, 380 metres northwest of the head of Anderson Bay. About 540 metres to the south, Continental Marble operated a second quarry on Lot 345. Up to 1916, 96.7 tonnes (1265 cubic feet) of marble was produced from this quarry for ornamental stone (CANMET Report 811, page 154). Red marble from this site was likely used in the columns and panelling throughout the Rotunda in the Legislative Buildings, Victoria.
