Zinc in Northeastern Washington-A Review

Current knowledge of the substantial resources of zinc that exist in northwestern Washington is reviewed. These zinc-lead deposits are all associated with the Kootenay Arc, a narrow arcuate belt of folded and faulted rocks that dominates the regional structure of Stevens and Pend Oreille Counties and adjacent parts of British Columbia. The deposits of the Arc are only part of a major lead-zinc silver metallogenic province that includes the deposits of the Coeur d'Alene district and the famed Sullivan ore body of Kimberly, British Columbia. Most, but by no means all the zinc-lead deposits of the Kootenay Arc are in carbonate rocks. They occur in several stratigraphic units, and in different parts of the Arc are quite diverse in character. The deposits appear to have undergone a complex geologic history and have not necessarily all been formed at the same time or by the same geologic processes.