Introductory full-color photo guide that highlights the best and much-prized rocks and minerals of the northwest. This guide 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.

Stanley (Stan) Fraser Leaming was born in Minnedosa, Manitoba, in 1917 and moved to Brandon, Manitoba, at a young age. There, Stan attended prospecting school in 1939. At 23 he entered the RCAF, and he was discharged from Second World War duties in 1945. He received his MA in geology from University of Toronto in 1948.

Stan is a leading authority on jade. He has travelled extensively in the world to collect and study jade, first working as a field geologist for 12 years, from Labrador to the Yukon, prior to joining the Geological Survey of Canada in Vancouver in 1960. Stan remained with the GSC until 1981, when he retired to Summerland, BC. His scientific work Jade in Canada laid the groundwork for the jade industry of BC.

Stan Leaming's profile page

Chris Leaming's profile page