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HAY RIVER - Mike Beauregard loves rocks. Not only is he a geologist, he's also a self-described rockhound who collects rocks and fossils as a hobby.

He explained rockhounding is simply collecting rocks, minerals, fossils and even meteorites.

"Anything rocky," he said.

Mike Beauregard is a Hay River geologist who collects rocks and fossils. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo

Beauregard, who has lived in Hay River for about a year, said he is close to the action for rockhounding in the NWT.

At Pine Point to the east, there are crystals and other interesting rocks to be found, left over from the closed lead/zinc mine.

Beauregard said he has about 30 buckets of crystals and other rocks from the Pine Point area.

"The waste dumps is where I'm looking," he said.

There, material from the old mine has been blasted, excavated, trucked and pushed over by bulldozers.

Aside from waste dumps, the Pine Point area also has pits left over from the mining operations, but Beauregard advises anyone interested in rockhounding to stay out of the pits.

As for fossils, he just has to drive a little south to Enterprise.

"In Enterprise, you've got the best fossil-collecting in the Northwest Territories," he said, adding that includes fossils of fish, shells, coral and gastropods (snails, for example).

Beauregard said there are several exposed ancient reefs at Enterprise, which was part of an inland sea some 400 million to 900 million years ago.

The reefs can be found at certain areas on the banks of the Hay River.

Beauregard looks along the river's edge as the flowing water erodes the bank and exposes fossils.

"I'm looking for the freshest material possible coming off the hillside," he said, adding that he wants to get the fossils before they get into the river, start to move downstream and are damaged.

"You can find fossils all along the Hay," he said, adding they all come from the Enterprise area.

The rockhounder has collected thousands of fossils from the Enterprise area.

Now an independent geologist, the 50-year-old has worked all over Canada, including the last 20 years in the North.

Beauregard said he has been collecting rocks since he was six or seven years old.

"I think all kids will collect rocks," he said. "It's just a matter of getting serious about it."

The first time rockhounding really "kicked in" for him was when he was 10 or 12 and living in Val-d'Or, Que.

Back then, he was rockhounding in a waste pile at a mine and discovered specks of gold in some quartz.

Beauregard, who was born into an air force family at Cold Lake, Alta., started to collect fossils when living in Trenton, Ont.

He still enjoys finding large crystals and large or pristine fossils.

"It's the thrill of discovery."