The Snowy Creek Rhodonite showing is located at the headwaters of Snowy Creek, approximately 4 kilometres north of the Stewart-Cassiar highway.
The rhodonite is hosted in the Mississippian to Permian Slide Mountain Complex. This sequence consists of bedded multicolored cherts, argillite, basalt and diabase sills and dikes. The stratiform, stratabound and poddy rhodonite occurs above a section of grey, black and pale green chert and argillite at the base of the unit and approximately 50 metres below an upper section of brightly coloured, maroon, red, green and grey chert and argillite. The discontinuous rhodonite horizon maintains this stratigraphic position for a strike length of at least 4 kilometres. The rhodonite occurs in well-bedded, grey to pale-green radiolarian chert with argillite partings.
The main deposit consists of three isolated outcrops, 200 to 300 square metres in exposed area, up to 100 metres in strike length and up to 5 metres thick. Rhodonite and rhodocrosite are intergrown with quartz and minor garnet and/or hematite, biotite and stilpnomelane. Traces of chalcopyrite, pyrite and sphalerite are present and indicate an exhalative origin.
The rhodonite has significant potential as a source of carving-quality material ranging in relative hardness from 4 to 6. The overall colour and quality is fair to good and is a vibrant mix of light and dark pinks and greens.
A second zone of rhodonite is reported on a southwest-northeast–trending ridge located approximately 900 metres to the southwest of the main (first) occurrence.
Also, in the area of the main (first) rhodonite occurrence, large unmineralized ‘bull’ white quartz veins, up to 6 metres wide, are reported. Along the ridge to the northeast a gossanous zone with pyrite has been identified and to the southwest, near the mountain peak, quartz veins with malachite have also been identified.
Work History
The area has been explored in conjunction with the nearby Lucky Shot (MINFILE 104P 041) occurrence and a complete exploration history can be found there.
