The Whitehorse Copper Belt is located west of Whitehorse and contains 30+ mines, deposits and showings. By 1900, most of the important deposits had been discovered and the first small ore shipment was made that year. Many of the occurrences in the Copper Belt are skarns. The skarns form on or near the contact between the Whitehorse batholith and the Lewes River group. The Whitehorse batholith is commonly a grey coarse-grained hornblende granite and ranges from quartz monzonite to granodiorite to diorite. The Lewes River group contains numerous different rock types, most importantly of which is the limestone group, which is essential in the formation of skarns in the area.  A small number of occurrences within the Copper Belt are vein and/or replacement and occur within the Whitehorse batholith granite.

Empress of India is located directly south of Spring Creek and is located within a similar environment. The deposit is located along a contact between the Lewes River limestone and Whitehorse batholith granite. The limestone is altered to grey marble and secondary minerals such as garnet, wollastonite, tremolite, actinolite, epidote, magnetite, quartz and calcite replace the contact.  Mineralization is also present as bornite, chalcopyrite, pyrite, and minor scheelite. On the bank of a nearby creek, oxidation of the minerals has stained the rock green.