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Uranium in the Pine Creek Geosyncline (1980)

AuthorIAEA
Date1980
Classification 4.22.5.12/01 (AUSTRALIA - MINES - JABILUKA)
Front

From the publication:

FOREWORD

The International Uranium Symposium on the Pine Creek Geosyncline was designed 
to present original data and interpretations of the Geosyncline derived from a 
three year coordination study by the sponsoring organisations: Bureau of Mineral 
Resources, Geology and Geophysics (BMR); Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial 
Research Organisation, Institute of Earth Resources (CSIRO) and participating 
industry groups. Papers contained in this volume were presented at the Symposium 
held in Sydney, Australia, June 4-8, 1979. The sponsoring organisations wish to 
express their gratitude to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for its 
co-operation in the Symposium and the publication.
Uranium exploration in the Pine Creek Geosyncline was stimulated by the discovery 
in 1949 of secondary uranium mineralization near Rum Jungle by the prospector 
J.M. White. This was followed by a decade of intense exploration activity resulting 
in the discoveries of uranium at Rum Jungle and in the South Alligator Valley. The 
first systematic mapping survey of the region also commenced during this period. 
The potential similarity of the Alligator Rivers area to the Rum Jungle Uranium Field 
was shown by a re-interpretation of the geology as shown on the second edition of 
the 1:500 000 scale map of the Geosyncline (Walpole et al., Bull. Bur. Miner. Resour. 
Geol. Geophys., Aust., 82, 1968). All the major uranium deposits of the Alligator 
Rivers Uranium Field have been discovered since 1970. The present resources (RAR) 
of the Geosyncline are approximately 289,000 tonnes U30s, more than 15 percent of 
the Western World's uranium resources.
The papers contained in this volume deal with regional and detailed aspects of 
exploration, geophysics, stratigraphy, geochemistry and petrology. In addition to 
the coverage of many aspects of uranium distribution and mineralization within the 
Pine Creek Geosyncline, vein-type uranium deposits in Lower Proterozoic rocks in 
other countries are discussed and compared with the Australian deposits. Particular 
emphasis is given to the Athabasca margin deposits in Canada.
A pleasing aspect of the Symposium was the diverse range of hypotheses advanced 
to account for the 'unconformity type' uranium deposits. It became clear that workers 
on the Canadian Athabasca margin deposits put much more emphasis on the genetic 
role of the unconformably deposited Middle Proterozoic rocks than do the Australian 
workers.
Although the Symposium acted as a landmark in the progress towards an 
understanding of the uranium mineralization in the Pine Creek Geosyncline, it is 
natural to expect that further studies will confirm or modify some of the concepts 
put forward here.

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