The East Wellington shale quarry is located about 6.4 kilometres west of Nanaimo near the East Wellington Coal Shaft #1 and the East Wellington Colliery. The shale mined belongs to the upper section of the Haslam Formation which is part of the Upper Cretaceous Nanaimo Group. The shales have been used successfully for pressed-brick manufacturing. They are hard shales with an average shrinkage of 4.6 per cent and a tensile strength of 70 p.s.i.(Bulletin 30, page 57).