Abstract The Oquirrh and Wasatch Mountains lie at the eastern edge of the Basin and Range province in north-central Utah. North-central Utah has had a long and complex deformational history, including two compressional events and two extensional events in the Mesozoic and Cenozoic, respectively. The ranges host three major mining districts largely containing pluton-related mineralization. The districts are aligned along the east-west trending Uinta-Cortez axis that is a manifestation of an Archean-Proterozoic suture. The axis is the fundamental control on pluton emplacement and related metallogeny. The major intrusions in the districts are Paleogene in age and were emplaced in an extensional stress regime with a NW-SE least principal stress direction. Within the mining districts mineralization is controlled by Mesozoic compressional structures and NE-striking faults and fractures.