British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Responsible for Housing
News | The Premier Online | Ministries & Organizations | Job Opportunities | Main Index

MINFILE Home page  ARIS Home page  MINFILE Search page  Property File Search
Help Help
File Created: 24-Jul-1985 by BC Geological Survey (BCGS)
Last Edit:  23-Aug-1990 by Garry J. Payie (GJP)

Summary Help Help

NMI
Name HOLLINGS Mining Division Victoria
BCGS Map 092B073
Status Past Producer NTS Map 092B11W
Latitude 048º 44' 52'' UTM 10 (NAD 83)
Longitude 123º 28' 15'' Northing 5399525
Easting 465389
Commodities Rhodonite, Gemstones Deposit Types Q02 : Rhodonite
Tectonic Belt Insular Terrane Wrangell
Capsule Geology

The area is underlain by cherty tuff, crystal tuff and thin- bedded sediments of the Mississippian to Pennsylvanian Fourth Lake Formation, Buttle Lake Group (formerly the Sediment-Sill Unit of the Sicker Group). The area is intruded by sills and dykes of diabase and gabbro (informally known as the Mount Hall Gabbro) that are coeval with the Upper Triassic Karmutsen Formation, Vancouver Group.

The Hollings rhodonite deposit consists of a lens, convex at top and bottom, reaching a maximum thickness of 5 metres and a minimum length of 30 metres. The banded variety contains abundant quartz, jasper and minor amounts of spessartite. Rare fragments of green chert host rock are present in the rhodonite. Rhodochrosite surrounds calcite veins and bands. There are numerous quartz, minor rhodonite and minor neotocite veins cutting the rhodonite.

The lower 25 centimetres of the rhodonite lens consists of interbeds of rhodonite and calcareous magnetite-garnet schist, followed by a 9.5-metre sequence of argillaceous metachert, cherty crystal tuff with idiomorphic garnet and minor recrystallized limestone. Directly up section from the rhodonite lens is a 0.5- metre band of argillaceous garnet-magnetite metachert. Still further upsection an igneous intrusion (unspecified type) has obliterated the section. Glacial drift and alluvium cover the sequence further down section.

The rhodonite is considered to be of excellent gem quality and the deposit has been quarried commercially on a small scale. The material is sold in chunks of various sizes, by the pound or in sawed blocks and slabs. Most of the production has been sold in rock shops for amateur use and no figures are available.

Fred Hollings mined the deposit in the 50's and 60's.

Bibliography
EMPR FIELDWORK 1982, p. 46; 1987, pp. 81-91
EMPR OF 1988-8
EMPR PF (In Commodity File - Sargent, H. (1956): Manganese Occur- rences in British Columbia; Leaming, S.F. (1966): Rhodonite in British Columbia, The Canadian Rockhound, pp. 7,8; *Danner, W.R. (1975): Gem Materials of British Columbia, Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, Special Publication 74, p. 160)
GSC MAP 42A; 1386A; 1553A
GSC MEM 13; 96
GSC OF 463
GSC P 64-37, p. 19; 72-44; 72-53, pp. 34,55,95; 75-1A, p. 23; 79-30
CAN ROCKHOUND Internet Magazine, Summer 1997, Vol. 1, No. 3; Rockhounding on Vancouver Island
Cowley, P. (1979): *Correlation of Rhodonite Deposits on Vancouver Island and Saltspring Island, British Columbia, Unpublished B.Sc. Thesis, University of British Columbia
Graves, W., Unpublished B.Sc. Thesis, University of British Columbia
Hudson, R. (1997): A Field Guide to Gold, Gemstone & Mineral Sites of British Columbia, Vol. 1: Vancouver Island, pp. 87-88
EMPR PFD 827143

COPYRIGHT | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY | ACCESSIBILITY