The Chinese wax mine: A unique oil-impregnated rock deposit

The Chinese Wax mine in Daniels Canyon, Wasatch County, Utah, is a small deposit of black, viscous, waxy oil emplaced in fractured, brecciated Oquirrh Formation (Pennsylvanian-Permian) on the Strawberry Valley (or Charleston) thrust sheet where the thrust has overriden the west margin of the Uinta Basin. The oil has apparently migrated up a fracture /one from the Wasatch or lower Green River Formations (early Eocene) beneath the thiust. The fracturing is related to a regional lineament which crosses much of northern Utah. The deposit wliich has been mined sporadically for 60 or more years is the only one in Utah with a record of exploitation solely as a source of petroleum products.