YELLOW CANARY 

URANIUM DEPOSITS, 

DAGGETT COUNTY, UTAH

This report concerns work done on 

behalf of the U. S. Atomic Energy 

Commission and is published with 

the permission of the Commission.
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

Douglas McKay, Secretary

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 

W. E. Wrather, Director

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY CIRCULAR 312

YELLOW CANARY URANIUM DEPOSITS, DAGGETT COUNTY, UTAH

By V. R. Wilmarth

This report concerns work done on behalf of the 

U. 8. Atomic Energy Commission and is published 

with the permission of the Commission.

Washington, D. C.,1953

Free on application to the Geological Survey, Washington 25, D. C,
YELLOW CANARY URANIUM DEPOSITS, DAGGETT COUNTY, UTAH'

By V. R. Wilmarth

Abstract.....................

Introduction..................

Location and accessibility 

Mine workings ..........

Geology .....................

Rock units...............

Red Creek quartzite , Dike rock ..........

Structure................

CONTENTS

Page

1

1

1

2

2

2

4

4

4

Page

Geology Continued

Ore deposits............................ 5

Uranium deposits .................. 5

Mineralogy........................ 5

Radioactivity ...................... 7

Grade............................. 7

Suggestions for prospecting ......... 7

Origin ............................ 7

Literature cited.............................. 8

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page

Figure 1. Generalized geologic map of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains, showing the location of the

Yellow Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims........................... .......................... 2

2. Geologic map and section of part of Yellow Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims ....................... 3

TABLE

Table 1. Spectrographic analyses of samples from Yellow Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims.

Page 

. 6

ABSTRACT

.The Yellow Canary uranium deposit is on 

the west side of Red Creek Canyon in the northern part of the Uinta Mountains, Daggett County, 

Utah. Two claims have been developed by means 

of an adit, three opencuts, and several hundred feet 

of bulldozer trenches. No uranium ore has been 

produced from this deposit.

The deposit is in the pre-Cambrian Red 

Creek quartzite. This formation is composed of 

intercalated beds of quartzite, hornblendite, garnet 

schist, staurolite schist, and quartz-mica schist 

and is intruded by dioritic dikes. A thick unit 

of highly fractured white quartzite near the top of 

the formation contains tyuyamunite as coatings on 

fracture surfaces. The tyuyamunite is associated 

with carnotite, volborthite, iron oxides, azurite, 

malachite, brochantite, and hyalite. The uranium 

and vanadium minerals are probably alteration 

products of primary minerals.

The uranium content of 15 samples from this 

property ranged from 0.000 to 0.57 percent.

INTRODUCTION

Carnotite has been known in the Red Creek 

Canyon area, since 1920 (Butler, 1920, p. 605), 

but there was little prospecting for uranium until 

C. E. Green and William Alien located the Yellow 

Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims, on July 10, 1948. 

In 1950, part interest in the uranium deposit 

was sold to F. W. Bailey and J. R. McDermott, 

and subsequently the Canary Mining Co. was 

incorporated with F. W. Bailey of Rock Springs, 

Wyo., as the president.

The uranium deposit at the Yellow Canary 

claims was brought to the attention of the 

U. S. Geological Survey by H. D. Bailey of Stibnite, 

Idaho, who submitted a sample from these claims 

that contained 1. 38 percent uranium. la August 

1950, F. A. McKeown and E. P. Beroni, of the 

U. S. Geological Survey, made a. brief examination 

of the deposit, and recommended further investigation. During August 1951, V. R. Wilmarth and 

R. C. Vickers spent 5 days in the area and mapped 

the geology and topography of an area about onetenth square mile surrounding the outcrop of the
Tertiary and Quaternary

____________109-45'_____

EXPLANATION

Contact between rock groups

Mesazaic

Trace of fault and probable 

extension. U,upthrawn side-, 

0, downfhrawn side

Paleozoic 

Pre-Cambrian

R.II2W. R. Ill W. R.HOW. RI09W.\ R.I08W.| R.I07 W R. 106 W R.I05W R. 104 ^ /,R. 103 W R. 102 W R.IQIW. R.IOOW.

After Curtis,B.F, Fifth Annuol Field Confertnc* Boot), Wyoming Geological A;$ociotlofi, I960 R 103 W R 102 W RIOIW R IOOW

Figure 1. Generalized geologic map of the north flank of the Uinta Mountains, Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; showing location of the Yellow Canary No. I and No. 2 claims, Daggett County, Utah.

deposit on a scale of 100 feet to the inch. Radiometric examination of the surface outcrops and 

sampling of the deposit were also completed.

Location and accessibility

The Yellow Canary uranium deposit, in 

sees. 4 and 5, T. 2 N., R. 24 E., Salt Lake 

meridian, is in the northern part of Daggett 

County in northeastern Utah (fig. 1). The Yellow 

Canary claims are located on the west side of 

Red Creek Canyon in the northern part of the 

Uinta. Mountains (fig. 1) and are 70 miles by 

road south from Rock Springs, Wyo., and 62 miles 

by road northwest from Sunbeam, Colo. The roads 

to the claims are generally open throughout the 

year.

Mine workings

The deposit is explored by three opencuts, one adit, 

about 700 feet of bulldozer trenches, and several prospect 

pits (fig. 2), Exposed in pit lisa northwest-trending 

fracture zone that contains the richest uranium-bearing 

quartzite. The 190-foot long exploration adit was driven 

to intersect this zone about 100 feet below the surface, and 

the bulldozer trenches were dug primarily to explore the 

uranium-bearing quartzite west of pit I.

GEOLOGY

Rock units

The rocks exposed in the northern part of the 

Uinta Mountains (fig. 2) include a basement complex 

of pre-Cambrian Red Creek quartzite and the
EXPLANATION

Limit of outcrop

Mx 

Strike ond dip of beds

Strike and dip of foliation

V 

Strike and dip of joint

Contact, showing dip

Dashed where approximately

located, dotted where concealed

Fault, showing dip ~? 

Dashed where approximately locate '

^//M'J}/,/' " ' I

Geology ond topography by 

and R.C.Victors. Auaus

Figure 2. Geologic map and section of part of the Yellow Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims.

3
Uinta Mountain group in fault contact with a thick 

series of sedimentary rocks of Paleozoic age. The 

Paleozoic section is overlain by sedimentary rocks of 

Mesozoic, Tertiary, and Quaternary age. Dioritic 

dikes, probably pre-Cambrian, intrude the Red Creek 

quartzite in the Red Creek area. The uranium deposit 

described in this report is in the quartzite.

The rocks exposed in the area of the Yellow Canary 

No. 1 and No. 2 claims include the pre-Cambrian Red 

Creek quartzite, probably pre-Cambriandioritic dikes, 

and Recent alluvium deposits.

Red Creek quartzite

The Red Creek quartzite is exposed over much 

of the mapped area (fig. 2). It is described by Powell 

(1876, p. 137)' as very crystalline and white with intercalated beds of hornblende, chloritic, and micaceous 

schist, all greatly implicated. Schultz (1920, p. 24) 

remapped the Red Creek quartzite and stated that the 

intercalated schists are intrusive. In the northern 

part of the Uinta. Mountains, the Uinta Mountain group 

unconformably overlies the Red Creek quartzite; this 

contact is about 1 mile east of the mapped area. The 

Red Creek quartzite (fig. 2) within the area mapped 

includes a thick unit of white quartzite that unconformably overlies a complex sequence of hornblendite, 

garnet schist, staurolite schist, quartz-mica schist, 

and dark-gray quartzite.

The typical Red Creek quartzite is a white, thin- to 

thick-bedded rock that has been folded and fractured 

extensively. It is almost wholly composed of quartz 

grains, but the granular structure of the rock is apparent in only a few places. Petrographic study shows 

the quartzite to be very pure with the individual grains 

of uniform size, for the most part. All the quartz 

grains show undulatory extinction and many are drawn 

out as if by dynamic metamorphism. Most of the grains 

are corroded and many are in part replaced by muscovite at the edges of the grains. Tyuyamunite, carnotite, 

volborthite, hematite, brochantite, malachite, hyalite, 

azurite, quartz, sericite, calcite, and manganese 

oxide are abundant locally. Many fractures in the 

quartzite ha.ve been cemented with hematite, calcite, 

and chalcedony, but others are open. Fluorescent 

hyalite coats fracture surfaces in the quartzite near 

pits 1 and 2, but none was found in other parts of the 

mapped area.

The hornblendite, a fine- to medium-grained, 

dark-green to black rock, occurs in beds fromi2 to 

10 feet thick, which can be traced along the strike for 

80 feet. Many veins of chalcedony, not more than an 

inch thick, fill fractures in the hornblendite near its 

contact with the white quartzite; 1 to 2 inch-wide veins 

of epidote cut across and parallel the foliation in the 

hornblendite. The hornblendite is locally bordered by 

a 2 to 4 inch-wide zone composed of hornblende in a 

fine-grained groundmass of quartz, muscovite, and 

biotite. Staurolite and garnet schist commonly are in 

contact with the hornblendite. In thin section the hornblendite has a granular texture and is composed of 

78 percent hornblende, 15 percent quartz, 4 percent 

magnetite, and 3 percent of fine-grained muscovite. 

The hornblende crystals are subhedral to anhedral and 

range from 0.04 millimeter to 0. 8 millimeter in 

length, and average 0. 06 millimeter in width. The

hornblende is rimmed with chlorite and interstitial to 

the grains are minor quantities of muscovite and 

magnetite.

Garnet schist layers, as much as 2 feet wide, 

are exposed for as much as 300 feet along the strike. 

The schist is composed of porphyroblasts of almandine 

in a fine-grained groundmass of quartz and muscovite. 

The porphyroblasts range from 1 millimeter to 18 millimeters in diameter and locally make up 30 percent of 

the rock. The garnet schist grades laterally into 

garnet-staurolite schist.

The light- to dark-gray staurolite schist contains 

porphyroblasts of staurolite in a fine-grained groundmass of quartz, muscovite, and biotite. The staurolite 

porphyroblasts range from 1 millimeter to 60 millimeters 

in width, and constitute as much as 50 percent of the 

rock.

The light-gray fine- to medium-grained quartzmica schist is composed of quartz, muscovite, biotite, 

and accessory hematite. Interbedded with the quartzmica schists are layers of dark-gray, medium-grained 

quartzite composed of quartz with accessory muscovite 

and biotite.

Dike rock

The igneous rocks in the Red Creek area, as 

described by Butler (1920, p. 600-601), are darkgreen dioritic rocks that have been considerably altered. 

The dikes intrude the Red Creek quartzite and are 

probably pre-Cambrian. In the mapped area (fig. 2), 

the dikes are typically dark-green to black fine-grained 

rocks that are heavily stained with hematite. They 

range from 2 to 15 feet in thickness, and are exposed 

for as much as 200 feet along the strike. In thin section the dike rock has a hypautomorphic-granular texture and is composed of hornblende, 64 percent; 

plagioclase, 14 percent; quartz, 17 percent; and the 

accessory minerals, apatite, 2 percent, and magnetite, 

3 percent. Clay and sericite, formed by alteration of 

the plagioclase, are abundant locally. The hornblende 

occurs in subhedral to anhedral grains that average 

0.06 millimeter in width and 0.16 millimeter in length. 

The hornblende grains have been altered locally to 

chlorite along the edges and most of the grains have 

been elongated probably by dynamic metamorphism. 

Quartz and plagioclase are interstitial to the hornblende.

Structure

The Red Creek area is in the Uinta Mountains, 

which were formed by dissection of a west-trending 

asymmetric anticline. Movements along faults in the 

Red Creek area of the Uinta Mountains have placed 

pre-Cambrian metamorphic rocks against sedimentary 

rocks of Paleozoic and Mesozoic ages. Curtis (1950, 

p. 93) believes this faulting is in part responsible for 

the exposure of Red Creek quartzite, and Schultz 

(1920, p. 24) has mapped a northeast-trending anticlinal and synclinal structure in this area.

In the mapped area (fig. 2) the metamorphic 

rocks have a pronounced foliation that trends northeast' 

and dips steeply to the northwest. At two localities,
however, the foliation trend deviates widely: at one 

locality west of the road the foliation strikes N. 20° W., 

and dips 74° SW.; at the second locality in the stream 

valley west of Red Creek the foliation strikes N. 76° W., 

and dips 48° S. No satisfactory explanation for these 

discrepancies can be made at this time; however, these 

local variations suggest that the rocks have been complexly folded.

The folded and faulted Red Creek quartzite overlies the metamorphic rocks with a marked angular 

unconformity. In the vicinity of the uranium deposit 

the Red Creek quartzite has been folded extensively 

(fig. 2). West of pit 1 bedding in the quartzite has an 

average strike of approximately N. 45° E. and dips 

20° to 64° NW., whereas, east of Red Creek the quartzite bed has an average strike of N. 50° E. and dips 

25° to 76° S. Minor folds in the quartzite are many 

and reflect the complexity of the major folding.

In the vicinity of the uranium deposit (fig. 2) the 

major structures are three normal, northeast-trending, 

longitudinal faults. Fault 1 is a low-angle fault that is 

exposed only near the end of the 190-foot exploration 

adit. It strikes N. 60° E., dips 13° S., and is marked 

in the adit by a fault breccia zone as much as 10-feet 

thick which contains quartzite boulders up to 4 feet in 

diameter, abundant sericite, clay, and small fragments 

X)f white quartzite. On figure 2 is shown the surface 

projection of this fault breccia zone. This breccia zone 

crops out near the center of the mapped area and about 

midway between faults 2 and 3. The owners report 

(oral communication) that two of the quartzite boulders 

were found coated with yellow and green uranium and 

vanadium minerals. Fault 1 has placed a mass of 

folded white quartzite over the undifferentiated metamorphic rocks (fig. 2). The vertical displacement 

along this fault is not known but the horizontal displacement is nearly 600 feet. In the northeast part of the 

mapped area, fault 2 strikes N. 40° to 45° E., dips 

68° S. and has a vertical displacement of about 75 feet. 

Although this fault is not exposed west of R"ed Creek it 

is probably older than fault 1. Fault 3 trends northeast, dips 76° NW and intersects fault 1 near the 

portal of the exploration adit. This fault is exposed 

about 500 feet southwest of the mapped area, where it 

strikes N. 40° E. and dips 76° NW. The vertical displacement along fault 3 was not determined accurately 

but the displacement must be greater than 100 feet or 

fault 1 would be exposed in the metamorphic rocks 

east of Red Creek (fig. 2, sec. A-A 1 ).

Joints are numerous in the quartzite in this area. 

The most prominent joints strike N. 62° to 85° W.. 

and many of them strike about N. 80° W. The joint 

planes are vertical or dip steeply northeast or southwest. Another set of joints that is not so well-developed and not nearly so extensive has an average strike 

of N. 65° E. and dips steeply to the northwest. In 

pit 1 the prominent joints are the loci for the deposition 

of the uranium and vanadium minerals, whereas most 

of the minor joints are not mineralized.

Ore deposits

Before the discovery of uranium at the Yellow 

Canary claims, the Red Creek area had been prospected extensively for copper. The copper deposits 

were not studied in detail but they have been described 

briefly by Butler (1920, p. 604-605). They consist of

fissure veins of quartz or of quartz and carbonates 

and contain metallic sulfides. The veins strike northeast and dip steeply to the northwest and southeast and 

are associated with diorite dikes and amphibolite. In 

the copper deposits, chalcopyrite and chalcocite, the 

most abundant sulfides, are associated with minor 

quantities of carnotite, hematite, bornite, malachite, 

azurite, and quartz. In 1948 secondary uranium 

minerals, tyuyamunite and carnotite, were found at an 

abandoned copper prospect on the Yellow Canary Claims 

in Red Creek Canyon. It is not known whether the 

occurrence at this property is that referred to by 

Butler (1920, p. 605). The uranium minerals occur 

as fracture fillings in quartzite and are associated with 

volborthite, hematite, malachite, azurite, brochantite, 

hyalite, and quartz.

Uranium deposits

At the Yellow Canary claims, yellow uranium 

minerals, carnotite and tyuyamunite, are disseminated 

sparsely in the highly fractured and contorted white 

quartzite of the pre-Cambrian Red Creek quartzite. 

In August 1951, the only visible uranium minerals were 

found in a 3- to 6-foot wide fracture zone in the white 

quartzite in pit 1; however, McKeown and Beroni1 report yellow uranium minerals in a small pit, now 

covered, about 100 feet southeast of pit 1. In pit 1 

this fracture zone trends northwest, dips steeply 

southwest, and can be traced for a few feet along the 

strike. A 6-foot channel sample (table 1) across this 

zone in pit 1 contains 0. 05 percent uranium, but in the 

bulldozer trenches west of pit 1, where the fracture 

zone is poorly exposed, no uranium minerals were 

found. Several small isolated boulders that contain 

yellow uranium mineral as coatings on fracture surfaces 

were found in the bulldozer trench just east of pit 1 and 

in the breccia zone in the adit. The size and shape of 

the uranium deposit is not known, because of the small 

extent of outcrop of the uranium-bearing quartzite.

Mineralogy

Tyuyamunite, a hydrated calcium uranium vanadate, is the principal ore mineral recognized at the 

deposit. It was identified by X-ray powder pattern by 

M. E. Thompson of the U. S. Geological Survey. Spectrographic analysis of the tyuyamunite showed uranium, vanadium, and silica to be major constituents; calcium, 

aluminum, and iron were minor constituents; and magnesium and copper were trace constituents. Tyuyamunite 

occurs, for the most part, as thincoatings, less than 

3 millimeters thick, on fracture surfaces and as crystalline aggregates that partially fill small vugs, as much 

as 5 centimeters across, in the quartzite. The tyuyamunite 

grains are commonly thin bright-lemon-yellow to paleyellow, nonfluorescent, tabular to subhedral flakes with 

their flat sides parallel to the surface on which they occur. 

Small but well-developed tabular crystals coat the more 

open fracture surfaces in the'quartzite. The largest and 

best developed crystals of tyuyamunite were found in the 

hematite-filled vugs. Locally, botryoidal masses of 

tyuyamunite less than 1 millimeter across occur on the 

massive tyuyamunite fracture coatings. Gradations from 

the bright yellow characteristic of the tyuyamunite crystals 

to the pale-yellow tyuyamunite grains on the fracture surfaces maybe found.

McKeown, T. A., and Beroni, E. P., 1951, A preliminary report on the 

Yellow Canary carnotite claims, Dagget County, Utah: U. S. Geol. Survey 

Trace Elements Rept. (In files of U. S. Geol. Survey, Denver, Colo.)
Table 1. Spectrographic analyses of samples from Yellow Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims, Daggett County, Utah. 1

Field 

no.

51-W-86

51-W-87

51-W-88

FK-7-13

FK-7-14

FK-7-15

FK-7-16

51-W-76

SI -W-T7 Z/J-~«~ ( [

51-W-78

K-\ _U..7Q ;* " I?

51-W-80

51-W-81

51-w-da

5l-w-6%

51-W-85

Material

Grab sample of horriblendite,

\ mile south of mine.

Grab sample of diorite dike northwest of pit 1.

Grab sample of horriblendite,

1 mile south of mine.

Grab sample from dump, tyuyamunitebearing quartzite.

 do 

 do 

9-foot chipped front channel 

sample, tyuyamunite-bearing

quartzite from pit 1.

5-foot channel sample, tyuyamunitebearing quartzite from pit 1.

't-.J-foot channel sample, quartzite

from pit 1.

6-foot channel sample of

tyuyamunite-bearing quartzite

from pit 1.

2.5-foot channel sample of diorite 

dike southeast of pit 2.

7-foot channel sample of quartzite

from north side pit 2.

8-£ret channel sample of quartzite

from west side pit 2.

5-foot channel sample of quartzite

frcto south side pit 2.

Grab sample of quartzite from end

of lower road.

2.5-foot channel sample of diorite

dike near pit 2.

U2

__

 

 

0.56

.10

 57

.11

.029

f\I\£i .006

.050

.001

.001

.001

.000

.001

.001

Si

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

XX

Al

XX

XX

XX

o.x

X

.X

.X

.X

.X

X

.X

.X

.X

.X

X

Ti

o.x

.X

.X

.ox

.ox

GOt "

.ox

.ox

.ox

X

.ox

.ox

.ox

.oxX

Mn

o.x

.X

.X

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.X

Fe

XX

XX

XX

X

X

X

X

X

X

XX

X

X

X

X

XX

Ca

X

o.x

X

X

X

.X

.ox

.ox

.ox

X

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

X

Mg

X

X

X

o.ox

.ox

.ox

.oox

.oox

.oox

X

.ox

.ox

.ox

.ox

X

Na

o.x

.X

.X

X

X

Ba

o.oox

.oox

.oox

.ox

.ox

.ox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.ox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.ox

Be

i Tr.

 

 

Tr.

0 OOOX 'TT.

.OOOX

.OOOX

.OOOX

.OOOX

Co

o.oox

.oox

.oox

.ox

oox

.ox

.oox

Tr.

.oox

.oox

.OOOX

.OOOX

Tr.

Tr.

.OOX

Cr

O.OX

.OX

.OX

.OOX

OOX

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

Cu

o.ox

X

.ox

X

.X

X

.ox

.oox

.ox

.ox

.oox

.ox

.oox

.oox

.oox

Ca

o.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

Mo

o.oox

.OOOX

.OOOX

.oox

oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

Ni

o.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.oox

Fb

o.oox

.oox

.oox

.ox

oox

!ox

.oox

.oox

.oox

.OOOX

Sr

3. OOX

.OOOX

.oox

.OOOX

.OOOX

.OOOX

.ox

.ox

Spectrographic analyses by P. U. Dun ton, Trace Elements Section, Denver laboratory. 

''Chemical analyses of uranium by Trace Elements Section, Denver laboratory.
A lemon-yellow finely crystalline uranium mineral, identified as carnotite by X-ray powder pattern, 

is associated with tyuyamunite and volborthite. It 

occurs, for the most part, interstitial to the flakes 

of tyuyamunite in specimens from pit 1.

Volborthite, a hydrous vanadate of copper and 

barium, is much less abundant than tyuyamunite. Its 

mode of occurrence is similar to that of tyuyamunite, 

but it is most commonly found in specimens from pit 2. 

It occurs as dark olive-green masses of finely crystalline radial aggregates and as coatings less than 

2 millimeters thick on fractures in the quartzite. The 

volborthite locally coats the tabular crystals of 

tyuyamunite in vugs.

Malachite and azurite, green carbonates of copper, 

are abundant as fracture coatings and as vug fillings in 

the quartzite specimens from pit 2. Clear brilliantgreen crystals of malachite, as much as 20 millimeters 

in length and 3 millimeters in width, are associated 

with volborthite, tyuyamunite, azurite, and brochantite. 

Locally the vanadium and uranium minerals are intermixed with the malachite. The dark-blue azurite grades 

into the pale-green malachite. In general, the secondary copper minerals were deposited later than 

tyuyamunite.

Calcite, quartz, and hematite are the common 

gangue minerals. The calcite occurs as thin coatings 

on fractures in the quartzite and generally is later than 

the copper, uranium, and vanadium minerals. Calcite 

crystals as much as 6 millimeters across locally fill 

vugs in the quartzite. Dark red-brown massive hematite forms thin coatings on the fractures and locally 

fills small vugs in the quartzite. Clear, glassy, quartz 

crystals as much as 5 millimeters in length line the 

vugs and open fractures in the quartzite. The quartz 

crystals are oriented in such a manner that their long 

dimensions are parallel to the walls of the fractures. 

Quartz is the earliest mineral deposited.

Hyalite, which contains enough uranium to fluoresce a brilliant yellow green, is abundant in the 

quartzite near pits 1 and 2. It occurs as white to 

yellowish-white botryoidal masses and as thin coatings 

on fractures. An ultraviolet light survey of the mapped 

area (fig. 2) showed that the fluorescent hyalite was 

found only in the immediate vicinity of the uraniumbearing quartzite. Future prospecting in the Red Creek 

Canyon area, with an ultraviolet light may lead to the 

discovery of other uranium deposits.

Specimens of quartzite from pit 1 contain a black 

powdery mineral as thin coatings on the fractures. 

Although no definite minerals have been identified, 

spectrographic analysis of this material showed the 

major elements to be aluminum, manganese, iron, and 

silica; the minor elements to be copper, cobalt, and 

vanadium, and traces of calcium, magnesium, lead, 

and nickel. This material is apparently a mixture of 

several secondary copper and vanadium minerals.

The owners report that a black sooty highly 

radioactive material possibly sooty pitchblende was 

found along fractures in the quartzite at the portal of 

the caved tunnel. The writers did not find any of this 

material during the examination of the property;

however, the presence of sooty pitchblende may indicate primary uranium minerals at depth.

Radioactivity

Examination for radioactivity of the Yellow 

Canary No. 1 and No. 2 claims was made with a betagamma survey meter. The average background of the 

instrument, which was neither calibrated nor standardized, was 3 divisions on the 0. 2 scale. Abnormal 

radioactivity, which caused deflections that ranged 

from 15 on the 0. 2 scale to 15 on the 2. 0 scale, was 

detected in pits 1 and 2. Survey of the surface outcrops 

in the immediate vicinity of the pits indicated no abnormal radioactivity; nor was radioactivity above 

normal background detected in the metamorphic rocks 

that underlie the white quartzite.

A reconnaissance survey for radioactivity of the 

copper deposits in Red Creek and Jessie Ewing Canyons 

indicated no abnormal radioactivity in the deposits.

Grade

At the Yellow Canary deposit uraniferous quartzite is exposed only in pit 1 of the surface workings. 

The richest sample collected by the writer contains 

0. 57 percent uranium; it was hand picked from pit 1 

as the highest grade material there. The uranium 

content of the other samples (table 1) ranged from 

0.000 to 0.56 percent.

Suggestions for prospecting

Uranium is not found over a very large area at 

the Yellow Canary mine. Because boulders of white 

quartzite in the fault breccia zone contain secondary 

uranium and vanadium minerals, the movement along 

fault 1 probably occurred after uranium deposition, and, 

therefore, the most favorable ground for prospecting 

is in the footwall of the fault, northwest of pit 1. Any 

prospecting in this area might be most profitably 

carried on by shallow bulldozer trenches or shafts.

Origin

The origin of the uranium deposit at the Yellow 

Canary claims can only be inferred from a study of 

the small exposure of uranium-bearing quartzite in 

pit 1. The concentration of the uranium, vanadium, 

and copper minerals along fractures in the white quartzite indicates that the deposition of the ore was controlled by structures and rock types. The absence of 

uranium and vanadium minerals in the copper-bearing 

hornblendite and their close association with copper 

minerals in the Red Creek quartzite, is evidence that 

there were two periods of mineralization: first, the 

deposition of primary copper sulfides in the hornblendite, and second, the deposition of primary copper, 

uranium, and vanadium minerals from solutions introduced along fractures in the quartzite. The secondary minerals, tyuyamunite, volborthite, and copper 

carbonates exposed in pit 1 were formed by alteration 

of the primary minerals.
Road log from Colorado State line to Yellow Canary claims

Colorado State line (end of Moffat County road 10). .................................

Road junction; follow road straight ahead .........................................

Road junction; follow road to left .................................................

Radosevich ranch to right; follow road to left ......................................

Road junction; follow road straight ahead. .........................................

Road junction; follow road straight ahead. .........................................

Road junction; follow road to left ...................................................

Road junction; J. G. Taylor ranch to left; follow road to right ................:......

Road junction; follow road to left; road to right leads up Jessie Ewing Canyon

End of road at mine. ............................................................

Distance i

To Yellow 

Canary claims

50.6

52.3

53.6

54.1

54.4

54.8

55.0

56.1

57.7

62.5

n miles

From Colo. 

State line

0

1.7

3.0

3.5

3.8

4.2

4.4

5.5

7.1

11.9

LITERATURE CITED

Butler, B. S., Loughlin, G. F., Heikes, V. C., and 

others, 1920, The ore deposits of Utah: U. S. Geol. 

Survey Prof. Paper 111.

Curtis, B. F., 1950, Structure of the north flank of 

the Uinta Mountains, Wyoming Geol. Assoc., Fifth 

Ann. Field Conference, southwest Wyoming, 

Guidebook.

Powell, J. W., 1876, Geologyof the eastern portion of the 

Uinta Mountains and a region of country adjacent thereto: 

U. S. Geol. andGeog. Survey Terr., 2ddiv. vii, 218 p.

Sears, J. D., 1924, Geology and oil and gas prospects 

of part of Moffat County, Colo., and southern Sweetwater County, Wyo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 751.

Schultz, A. R., 1920, Oil possibilities in and around 

Baxter Basin, in the Rock Springs uplift, Sweetwater 

County, Wyo.: U. S. Geol Survey Bull. 702.

IHT.-OUP. SEC.. WASH.. D.C. 5265«