Uranium Deposits

Uranium Deposits
Uranium Deposits
Hematite Breccia Complex Deposits
• These deposits occur in hematite-rich breccias, where the uranium
minerals are associated with copper, gold, silver, and rare earths.
• The only representative of this type of deposit presently being mined
is Olympic Dam in South Australia.
• This is the largest mined uranium deposit in the world, with
reasonably assured resources (defined below) recoverable at less
than US$80/kg U of more than 1.2 million tU.
Uranium Deposits
Quartzpebble Conglomerate Deposits
• Detrital uraninite is deposited, together with pyrite and gold, in
monomictic (only quartz pebbles) conglomerates that are the basal
units of fluvial to lacustrine braided stream systems older than 2.4 Ga.
• Examples include the Witwatersrand Basin in South Africa, where
uranium is mined as a byproduct of gold (0.02 to 0.05 percent
uranium grade), and the Blind River/Elliot Lake area in Canada which
has higher grades (0.1 to 0.15 percent uranium), where only uranium
was mined.
Uranium Deposits
Vein Deposits (Granite-Related Deposits)
• The major component of the mineralization fills fractures associated with
strike-slip extension.
• The veins consist of gangue material (e.g., carbonates, quartz) and uranium
minerals.
• Typical examples range from pitchblende veins (e.g., Pribram in the Czech
Republic, Schlema-Alberoda in Germany), to stock-works and episyenite
columns (e.g., Bernardan in France), to narrow cracks in granite or
metamorphic rocks (e.g., Mina Fe in Spain, Singhbhum in India).
• Individual deposits contain from a few hundreds of tonnes to 80,000
tonnes of uranium at grades of 0.05 percent to 0.6 percent.
Uranium Deposits
Intrusive Deposits
• These deposits are associated with intrusive or anatectic rocks
(alaskite, granite, monzonite, peralkaline syenite, carbonatite, and
pegmatite).
• Examples include the Rossing alaskites in Namibia, very-low-grade
uranium as a byproduct of porphyry copper deposit mining (such as
Bingham Canyon in the United States), the Ilímaussaq lujavrites in
Greenland, and the Palabora carbonatite in South Africa.
Uranium Deposits
Volcanic- and Caldera-Related Deposits
• These deposits are associated with volcanic caldera that are infilled
with mafic to felsic volcanic complexes and intercalated clastic
sediments.
• Mineralization is largely structural-controlled (minor stratabound),
occurs at several stratigraphic levels of the volcanic and sedimentary
units, and extends into the basement where it is found in fractured
granite and in metamorphic rocks.
Uranium Deposits
Fig. : Caldera
Uranium Deposits
Fig. : Caldera
Uranium Deposits
• Uranium minerals are commonly associated with molybdenite and
fluorite. Individual deposits contain from a few hundreds of tonnes to
37,000 tonnes of uranium at grades of 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent.
• The most significant deposits of this type are located in Russia
(Streltsovska district), China (Xiangshan), and Mongolia (Dornot).
Uranium Deposits
Metasomatic Deposits
• The largest deposits of this type occur in Precambrian shields, where
they are related to crustal-scale shear zones along which different
types of basement rocks—granites, migmatites, gneisses, and banded
iron formations—are desilicified and subject to sodium-
metasomatism with production of albitites, aegirinites, and
carbonaceous-ferruginous rocks.
Uranium Deposits
• Ore lenses and stocks are a few meters to tens of meters thick, and
some are hundreds of meters long.
• The vertical extent of ore mineralization, mostly brannerite and
uraninite, can be more than 1.5 km. Individual deposits contain from
a few hundreds of tonnes to 80,000 tonnes of uranium at grades of
0.08 percent to 0.3 percent.
• Examples include the Michurinskoye and Zheltorechenskoye deposits
in Ukraine, and Lagoa Real and Itataia in Brazil.
Uranium Deposits
Surficial Deposits
• Surficial uranium deposits result from young (Tertiary to Recent) near-
surface uranium mineral deposition in sediments and soils.
• The largest deposits are paleovalleys filled with poorly sorted
siliciclastic rocks in which calcretes (carbonate concretions) are
formed in arid to semiarid climatic conditions as a result of
evaporation.
Uranium Deposits
• Individual deposits contain from a few hundreds of tonnes to 65,000
tonnes of uranium at grades of 0.012 percent to 0.13 percent.
• The main deposits are in Australia (Yeelirrie) and Namibia (Langer
Heinrich and Trekopjje).
• Surficial uranium deposits also can occur in peat bogs and soils.
Uranium Deposits
Collapse Breccia Pipe Deposits
• The breccia pipes are vertical, circular, and result from karst limestone
dissolution; they are infilled with fragments derived from the gravitational
collapse of overlying formations.
• The uranium minerals occur in the permeable breccia matrix and in the
arcuate, ring-fracture zone surrounding the pipe.
• Individual deposits contain from a few hundreds of tonnes to a few
thousands of tonnes of uranium at grades of 0.16 percent to 0.85 percent.
• Type examples are the deposits in the “Arizona Strip” north of the Grand
Canyon.
Uranium Deposits
Phosphorite Deposits
• These deposits consist of synsedimentary stratiform marine
phosphorites deposited on the continental shelf. The uranium is
hosted by apatite, and can be recovered as a byproduct of phosphoric
acid production. Phosphorite deposits constitute large uranium
resources, but at a very low grade.
Uranium Deposits
• Individual deposits contain from tens of thousands of tonnes to more
than 3 million tonnes of uranium at grades of 0.01 percent to 0.03
percent.
• Examples include the pebble phosphate deposit of New Wales in
Florida, and Gantour in Morocco.
• Some phosphorite deposits consist of argillaceous marine sediments
rich in uraniferous fish remains (e.g., Melovoe in Kazakhstan).

Uranium Deposits

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