Guide to Rocks and Minerals of the Northwest is intended to show some of the much-prized rocks and minerals of the northwest. Some are valued for their beauty when cut and polished. Others are prized for the economic value of the metals they contain, such as copper in chalcopyrite, or of some physical property of the mineral itself, such as the fibrous nature of asbestos.
Still other minerals are valued for their crystal form, or, simply as examples of the great diversity in the mineral kingdom.
Stan Leaming, M.A., spent over a decade as a field geologist before joining the B.C. Geological Survey in 1960, retiring in 1982. Through his particular interest in supporting prospectors and rockhounds, Leaming has been involved in every major jade discovery in B.C. He is the author of Rock and Mineral Collecting in British Columbia and Jade in Canada, and co-author of Guide to Rocks & Minerals of the Northwest.