| Abstract | The eight papers presented in this issue of Exploration & Mining Geology arose primarily from presentations made in a Special Session at the GeoCanada 2010 conference, held in Calgary during May 2010.
Uranium ore system research in Canada at the time was gaining momentum, based on favourable market conditions, strong ongoing industry and NSERC-industry research support, and completion of successive government-led collaborative programs (e.g.
EXTECH IV and Canadian Secure Energy Program). Since this conference, uranium ore systems research has remained very active in Canada, including ongoing industry and NSERC-industry research, as well as renewed collaborative multidisciplinary projects
supported by the Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) and Targeted Geoscience Initiative Four (TGI-4) programs delivered by the Geological Survey of Canada for Natural Resources Canada.
At GeoCanada 2010, the two-day uranium special session
¿Geological Environments hosting Uranium Deposits¿ received 33 submissions, consisting of 21 oral presentations and 12 posters. While the papers in this issue cover a spectrum of uranium ore districts in Canada, from the Central Mineral Belt,
through the Athabasca and Thelon Basins, to the Great Bear magmatic zone, they fall into two broad categories: advanced ore deposit studies and developments in uranium exploration methods.
Advanced ore deposit studies are addressed by Bridge et
al., McKechnie et al., and Wheatley and Cutts. Bridge et al. report the first modern study on the historic Lac Cinquante deposit. Benefitting from updated regional geological maps and incorporating new geological interpretation and geochronology,
the authors propose a new genetic model for this revived camp. McKechnie et al. detail the petrogenesis of intrusion-related uranium mineralization in the Fraser Lakes area, immediately southeast of the Athabasca Basin, and draw analogies with
global examples. Finally, Wheatley and Cutts present an update on the Maybelle River deposit, the most prospective occurrence located in the Alberta portion of the Athabasca Basin. As noted by the authors, this system correlates well with known
mineralization in the Eastern Athabasca and highlights the exploration potential in the western Athabasca Basin.
Developments in uranium exploration technology and geoscience models are presented by Pan et al., Percival et al., Sparkes, Ootes et
al., and Tschirhart et al. Pan et al. outline exploration advances using radiation-induced defects (RIDs) with respect to unconformity-associated deposits. Advances in this technique, as outlined in the paper, now permit inferences on the uranium
fertility of hydrothermal alteration systems using electron paramagnetic resonance studies of quartz. Percival et al. describe an unusual hydraulic breccia in the Athabasca Basin and present implications for basin diagenesis, fluid migration, and
uranium mineralization. Sparkes re-evaluates a novel method to develop high-resolution images of the distribution of radioactive minerals in geological samples, using examples of uranium mineralization from the Central Mineral Belt, Labrador. Ootes
et al. highlight applications of new bedrock mapping and radiometric surveys in exploration for uranium-deposits in the Great Bear magmatic zone, a historically significant uranium district with revitalized exploration potential with the discovery of
the entire spectrum of iron oxide-copper-gold deposits (polymetallic hematite-group ± U, magnetite-group) and affiliated systems (iron-oxide alkali altered, Na-metasomatic U, etc). Finally, Tschirhart et al. present a new utility to delineate faults
using edge-detection in aeromagnetic data, providing a potential capability to discriminate between ancient basement structures and more prospective reactivated faults which cross-cut overlying sandstones in unconformity-associated environments.
We are grateful to the authors for their participation in the highly successful GeoCanada 2010 conference and for their patience while this Exploration & Mining Geology special issue was brought to press. Support of the special issue by
Geomapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) and Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI-4) permitted printing of all manuscripts in colour. We gratefully acknowledge the support editorial leadership of past-editor Jeremy Richards and current editor Steve
McCutcheon. |
| Summary | (Plain Language Summary, not published)
The eight papers presented in this issue of Exploration & Mining Geology arose primarily from presentations made in a Special Session at the GeoCanada
2010 conference, held in Calgary during May 2010. Uranium ore system research in Canada at the time was gaining momentum, based on favourable market conditions, strong ongoing industry and NSERC-industry research support, and completion of
successive government-led collaborative programs (e.g. EXTECH IV and Canadian Secure Energy Program). Since this conference, uranium ore systems research has remained very active in Canada, including ongoing industry and NSERC-industry research, as
well as renewed collaborative multidisciplinary projects supported by the Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals (GEM) and Targeted Geoscience Initiative Four (TGI-4) programs delivered by the Geological Survey of Canada for Natural Resources
Canada. |