Unconformity-associated uranium deposits of the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan and Alberta

Citations Over Time

Abstract

This paper reviews the geology, geophysics, and origin of the unconformity-associated uranium deposit type, focused on the Athabasca Basin. Pods, veins, and semimassive replacements of uraninite (variety pitchblende) are located close to unconformities between late Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic conglomeratic sandstone basins and metamorphosed basement rocks. The thin, overall flat-lying, and apparently unmetamorphosed, but pervasively altered, mainly fluvial strata include red to pale tan quartzose conglomerate, sandstone, and mudstone. Beneath the basal unconformity, red hematitic and bleached clay-altered regolith grades down through chloritic altered to fresh basement gneiss. The highly metamorphosed interleaved Archean to Paleoproterozoic granitoid and supracrustal basement gneiss includes graphitic metapelitic that preferentially hosts reactivated shear zones and many deposits. A broad variety of deposit shapes, sizes, and compositions ranges from monometallic and generally basement-hosted veins to polymetallic lenses located just above or straddling the unconformity, with variable Ni, Co, As, and Pb and traces of Au, Pt, Cu, REEs, and Fe.

Related Papers

• → Location of Uranium‐Rich Brines Determines the Distribution and Grade of Unconformity‐Related Uranium Deposits(2022)9 cited
• → Mesozoic — Neozoic structural evolution and its relationship to the formation of sandstone-type uranium deposits in the Yili Basin(2005)1 cited
• Analysis of uranium sources in in-situ leachable sandstone-type uranium deposit in Songliao Basin(2010)
• Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration Research on Basic Metallogenic Conditions of Unconformity-Related Uranium Deposits in the South Part of Kangdian Earth' s Axis(1999)
• Geophysical and Geochemical Exploration Research on Basic Metallogenic Conditions of Unconformity-Related Uranium Deposits in the South Part of Kangdian Earth′s Axis(In Chinese)(2000)