Abstract
Mineral exploration conducted during the summers of the latter 1970s and early 1980s by personnel of United Resources International (URI) on behalf of the Omega Energy Corporation confirmed the existence of mineralized zones containing anomalous uranium, thorium, and rare earths, and other metals in the Kachauik area and Death Valley area of the Eastern Seward Peninsula of Alaska. According to the policy recently announced by the senior author (Campbell, 2017), this paper is based on data from the field work produced by the senior author and associated URI personnel some 40 years ago and the work continue today. The geological mapping, sampling, and resulting analytical data, considered in the light of the detection limits, precision and accuracy of the analytical methods available at that time, remain relevant to mineral exploration today. Substantial work has been conducted on the metamict mineral referred to as allanite, and on the regional geology and geophysics over the past 40 years. This new information has also been incorporated in this paper. Field reconnaissance and sampling, and petrographic, chemical, XRD, microprobe, cathodoluminescence and metallurgical analyses conducted in the late 1970s indicate that the mineralized zones occur within a composite alkaline intrusive complex related to, but separate from, the Darby pluton of the Darby Mountains area. The areas sampled contain uranium that has been leaching into the groundwater below wherever uranium is available. The rocks sampled also contain thorium and rare-earth elements associated with allanite and common accessory minerals. The major zone of mineralization examined appears to be related to prominent phonolite dikes that occur along its margin in monzonitic country rock. Metasomatic introduction of uranium, thorium, and rare earths related to dike intrusion is postulated as the mechanism of metallogenesis. Areas with associated faulting and favorable host rocks, e.g., contact metamorphosed rock within fractured carbonate and graphitic rocks, as well as other favorable rock types, occur in the immediate area.
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http://sciaeon.org/articles/Uranium-Thorium-Rare-Earths-and-Other-Metals-in-Cretaceous-Age-Basement-Rocks-A-Source-for-New-Uranium.pdf
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Journal of Geology and Geoscience 