Assessing the Domestic Uranium Resource Base

Uranium, the object of a quarter billion-dollar search in the US during 1977, is a ubiquitous element rarely found in economic concentrations. It originates in magmas as a large tetravalent ion, the size of which restricts it from the crystal lattices of many rockforming minerals. Instead, according to United States Mineral Resources (US Geological Survey Professional Paper 820) as the magma crystallizes, a portion of the uranium is deposited as an intergranular film on rock forming minerals, enters accessory minerals, or forms its own minerals. The remaining uranium becomes concentrated in magmatic differentiates, where it forms minerals in pegmatites and veins.