Olade reported late 2019 that uranium is a naturally-occurring radioactive element that is used mainly to generate nuclear power to produce relatively cheap electricity. Several developing countries have strived to acquire and utilize nuclear technology, as well as own the needed uranium raw materials. Although uranium can be found in trace amounts almost everywhere on the Earth’s surface, economically recoverable concentrations as ore deposits are limited to a few geological environments.
Out of more than 20 countries that mine uranium ore worldwide, only five countries account for over half of world’s annual production, and 75% of such
production is derived from sediment hosted and unconformity related deposits. Since the 1970s, Nigeria has aspired to find viable uranium deposits within its borders, particularly after vast deposits of uranium were discovered in the central African country of Niger Republic in the 1960s. Despite Nigeria’s supposed uranium mineralization potential, only a few occurrences have been discovered, none of which are apparently economically viable.
The known uranium occurrences are classified into four types based on their geological setting and
mode of occurrence:
i) magmatic dissemination in peralkaline granites;
ii) epigenetic fissure-filling veins in granites/rhyolites;
iii) sandstone hosted; and
iv) phosphorite uranium.
The sandstone hosted occurrences are of two subtypes; tectono-lithologic and stratiform. A conceptual framework is proposed utilizing several criteria to develop an exploration model that is focused on targets with substantive mineralization potential. Based on this model, it seems only the stratiform sandstone type uranium is considered as having any future exploration potential in Nigeria.
Fortunately, the country is endowed with several Cretaceous riftogenic sedimentary basins, such as the Gongola Basin, Yola Basin, Borno Basin, Lower Benue Trough and Mamfe Embayment that contain several hundred meters thick basal arkosic sandstones and conglomerates of fluvial to deltaic origin and formed in rapidly subsiding depocenters overlying crystalline basement rocks.
The formation of sandstone uranium deposits is often dependent, among other factors, on the nature, abundance and the reactivity of the uranium reducing agents which include organic materials, biogenic H2S and hydrocarbons. Several areas that have potential sources for uranium and the conducive environment to precipitate and preserve uranium within the stratigraphic sequence are proposed as potential exploration targets.
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