White Canyon Mining District, San Juan County, Utah, USAi

Regional Level Types
White Canyon Mining District	Mining District
San Juan County	County
Utah	State
USA	Country

The White Canyon (Hite) mining district is located about 50 mi west of Monticello in central San Juan County. The district is located between the Red Canyon district to the west, Fry Canyon district to the south, and Deer Flat district to the east. These districts are all part of the White Canyon U mining area. Copper prospecting began in the White Canyon area in the 1880s but led to little development. The first U production in the district started in 1949 and continued into the 1980s (Chenoweth, 1993). The Happy Jack mine was the first producer and largest mine in the White Canyon district. Early production was hampered by the high Cu content of the U ores (Chenoweth, 1993). Nearly all production was from underground mines accessed by tunnels except for a small open pit at the Happy Jack mine. The White Canyon district is a large mining district and ranks as the third largest U producing district in the state. Total district metal production at modern metal prices is estimated at $121 million.
The White Canyon district is on the Monument Upwarp in the Paradox Basin on the Colorado Plateau. The rocks of the Monument Upwarp, west of the Comb Ridge monocline, generally dip gently west. This area is part of the deeply incised Red Rock Plateau/White Canyon Slope, sandwiched between the Colorado River on the west and Comb Ridge to the east. The host strata for the sandstone U ±Cu ore (USGS Model 32c) in the White Canyon district is the Upper Triassic Shinarump Conglomerate Member of the Chinle Formation. Mineralization is typically associated with westerly flowing stream channels down-cutting into the underlying Lower Triassic Moenkopi Formation mudstone. Individual orebodies are hosted in the basal sandstone, are tabular to lenticular, are associated with carbonaceous trash, and contain from a few tons to more than 15,000 tons of ore. Productive orebodies are 2 to 10 ft thick, 50 to 150 ft wide, and 300 to 500 ft long (Doelling, 1969).
The ore minerals are fine grained, in the interstices of the sandstone, and associated with asphaltite and carbonaceous trash. The unoxidized ore/sulfide minerals are uraninite, chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite, covellite, domeykite, tennantite, pyrite, and less commonly galena, sphalerite, and ilsemannite. Vanadium only occurs in trace amounts as montroseite. The Happy Jack ore has trace amounts of Co and has the reported Co minerals of erythite, cobaltzippyite, smaltite, and skutterudite. Gangue minerals include calcite, dolomite, manganosiderite, jarosite, limonite, gypsum, and barite. Ore grades average approximately 0.26% U3O8, 0.06% V2O5, and 0.7% Cu. The underlying Moenkopi Formation mudstone is commonly bleached near orebodies (Doelling, 1969; Chenoweth, 1993).