Clay and shale in British Columbia

Brick shales and refractory clays are mined at Sumas Mountain near Abbotsford. Sholes and stoneware clays elsewhere in the province have not been developed. THE SUMAS MOUNTAIN deposit near Abbotsford, 80 km east of Vancouver, has been in continuous production since 1905. The deposit is exposed in a small outlier and comprises a sequence of alternating beds of clay and sand. Beds are of Eocene age. Within the 400 m thick ness of sediments are seven distinctive conglomerate members, some up to 20 m thick, interbedded with fine grained sediments including claystones and siltstone , or "shales". Shale is quarried to produce a variety of bricks, sewer pipes and similar products; it is also used for cement. Several different shale beds have been mined over the years and exhibit a variety of fired colours ranging from buff-pink grey to deep red; pyrometric cone equivalents (PCE) range from 3 to 20. A layer of fireclay 3 to 4 m thick that occurs at the base of the sequence has pinkish white to light buff fired colour and PCE of 30 to 33. It is used as a 266 primary component to produce refractory bricks. The shale is quarried and processed by Clayburn Industries Limited of Abbotsford. Another similar but smaller outlier of the same geological formation is known from Blue Mountain, about 20 km northwest of Mission. Other ceramic clays in British Columbia are reported from Quesnel (7 m bed of white stoneware clay, PCE 17 to 19), Giscome Rapids (25 km north of Prince George, 10 m bed of stoneware clay to PCE 31) and anaimo-Comox area (buff to red firing "shales", PCE 8 to 10-1 12) . From 1959 to 1974 Cretaceous shale from Saturna Island in the Strait of Georgia was used to produce lightweight aggregate. Similar deposits of expanding shale are known from the vicinity of Duncan on Vancouver Island.