Granite Island Quarries planned a new dimension stone quarry on Nelson Island, located on a north facing bluff overlooking MacKechnie Lake. Photographs of the bluff indicate a granite material similar to that quarried elsewhere on the island. The quarry site is accessed by logging roads.
Typical Nelson Island granodiorite is light grey, uniform and has a medium grained texture. Black blades of biotite and occasional hornblende crystals contrast with the light grey feldspar and quartz matrix. Scattered knots of mafic minerals (less than 1 per cent by volume), up to 3 centimetres wide by 10 centimetres long, are visible in outcrop. Isolated clusters of pyrite are also visible. Nelson Island is underlain by masssive granodiorite of a Cretaceous Coast Crystalline complex pluton. A few remnant pendants of carbonate/ clastic/volcanic rock assigned to the Karmutsen Formation of the Upper Triassic Vancouver Group are present at Nelson Island.
Within the intrusion, spacing between joints and fractures at other island quarries permits removal of large blocks. Greater than 80 per cent of vertical joints and fractures, and over 74 per cent of horizontal joints, are spaced more than 100 centimetres. Large reserves remain on the site at three of the older quarries on the island. Cottages have been built on the site of the smallest quarry. Physical properties are as follows: (Canmet Report 452, pp. 85-86):
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Specific Gravity 2.657
Crushing strength (dry) (lbs/sq.in.) 34,823
Transverse strength (lbs/sq. in) 2,871
Shearing strength (lbs/sq. in) 2,300
Quarries on Nelson Island have been operated intermittently since the mid-1800's, providing stone for a number of buildings and monuments in Vancouver, Victoria, New Westminster and Nanaimo. The stone has also been exported to Australia, California and Hawaii. Vancouver Granite Company Ltd. operated the quarries more or less continuously during the first half of this century. The stone was marketed under the trade name "Nelson Island Grey".
