Geology of the Whitehorse Copper Belt (NTS 105 D/11), southern Yukon. A compilation including a 1:25 000-scale geological map with marginal notes on bedrock geology, mineral occurrences, mineral deposits and grades of some mineral deposits.

This report on the Whitehorse Copper Belt is written by a geologist who was actively involved in mining and exploration in the district during the decade of the seventies. It includes a review of earlier data and compiles recent work, mining practice, geological concepts and constraints and problems in development and mining. Earlier reports on the district by McConnell and Kindle emphsized geology; this report concentrates on mining and development. The report was written when mining in the district was at its peak; it will be useful to those contemplating future development in the Copper Belt and for comparing the district to others. Mining in the Copper Belt may cease soon and the report was solicited by D.I.A.N.D. from Whitehorse Copper Mines as a record of mining practice and geological concepts.

The Whitehorse Copper Belt is a northwest-trending chain of copper-bearing skarn deposits, located four kilometres west of the city of Whitehorse (NTS 105 D). The belt extends parallel to the Alaska Highway for thirty kilometres, from the Crestview subdivision to the junction of the Alaska Highway and the South Klondike Highway. From the time Jack McIntyre staked the Copper King in 1898, the belt has been vigorously prospected and mined for its valuable copper, gold and silver metals.

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This report discusses the distribution of intrusion related and other mineral occurrences in the Whitehorse map-area, Yukon. Mineral occurrences recorded in the Archer, Cathro and Associates, Ltd., Northern Cordillera Mineral Inventory have been classified according to deposit type and principal commodities then plotted on a lithologic map (1:250 000 scale) which is in part an updated version of the Geological Survey of Canada four mile map for the Whitehorse map-area by Wheeler (1961). New information added to the map includes: geology and geochronology of the Bennett Lake cauldron subsidence complex; geology of the Atlin Terrane; reinterpreted geology of the adjacent Laberge map-area and part of the Bennett and Atlin map-areas; a reclassification of geologic units in southern Yukon; reconnaissance mapping, classification and geochronology of granitic rocks in the Whitehorse map-area; and detailed stratigraphy of the Upper Triassic Lewes River Group with special emphasis on the Whitehorse Copper Belt and the associated Cu-Fe skarn deposits.

A copy of this thesis is available at the EMR library – QE446.Y8 M67 1981.