Browns Hole-Upper Kane Creek Mining District, San Juan County, Utah, USAi

Regional Level Types
Browns Hole-Upper Kane Creek Mining District	Mining District
San Juan County	County
Utah	State
USA	Country

The Browns Hole-Upper Kane Creek mining district is in northern San Juan County about 14 mi southeast of Moab. Little has been written on the deposits in the Browns Hole-Upper Kane Creek district; it is one of several districts that make up the Moab U mining area. The Browns Hole-Upper Kane Creek district was a significant U-V producer and accounted for 85%–90% of the Morrison production from the Moab U area. Total district metal production at modern metal prices is estimated at $26 million. Nearly 60% of this production came from the Yellow Circle group (Doelling, 1974).
The Browns Hole-Upper Kane Creek district lies in the Hatch syncline section of the Colorado Plateau province. The district is separated from the Brumley Ridge district to the northeast by the Spanish Valley collapsed salt anticline. The Browns Hole- Upper Kane Creek mine workings are primarily rim cuts and inclines in the Salt Wash Member of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, which is exposed around three sides of Black Ridge. Most of the U-V orebodies are found about 100 to 180 ft above the base of the Salt Wash Member with the best deposits in the thickest sections of Salt Wash sandstone (USGS Model 30c). Ore is typically associated with masses of carbonized vegetal matter and the principal ore minerals are carnotite and vanoxite (Doelling, 1969, 1974).
Production records for the Upper Kane Creek-Browns Hole district are difficult to compile because most production summaries combine production from the whole Moab U mining area. Nonetheless, the district is estimated to have produced approximately 74,000 tons of ore containing 415,000 pounds U3O8 and 2,250,000 pounds V2O5 at an average grade of 0.28% U3O8 and 1.52% V2O5 (Doelling, 1974).