Mineral zoning in the Keno Hill silver-lead-zinc mining district, Yukon

The Keno Hill-Galena Hill mining district of central Yukon has been a prolific silver-lead-zinc producer since the early part of the century. Typical orebodies are extensive vein systems with a mineralogy consisting of siderite, quartz, pyrite, galena, sphalerite, and freibergite in varying combinations. The veins are restricted to steep SE-dipping fault zones principally contained within a brittle graphitic quartzite unit and some concordant greenstone bodies. The main silver lodes form a narrow east-west belt, 25 km long, and have been assigned a mid-Cretaceous age as have nearby granitic bodies and their associated tin and tungsten mineralization. This study of the vein minerals indicates that groups of adjacent deposits have characteristic mineral assemblages distinguishing them from other groups; these form zones along the entire length of the belt. The following summarizes the principal mineralogical zones from west to east:: 1) pyrargyrite in quartz-siderite veins with some native silver, polybasite, stephanite, and acanthite are mainly in the west; 2) siderite, galena, sphalerite, and freibergite occur in most deposits but are found without the other index minerals on top…

Publisher

Government of Yukon

Resources

3

Catalogue metadata updated

2026-08-26