Assessment of Undiscovered Sandstone-Hosted Uranium Resources in the Texas Coastal Plain, 2015

Uranium (Nuclear Minerals) / Exploration, Mining, Marketing, & Acquisitions

Date posted: 12/07/15

The U.S. Geological Survey estimated a mean of 220 million pounds of recoverable uranium oxide (U3O8) remaining as potential undiscovered resources in southern Texas. This estimate used a geology-based assessment method for Tertiary sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain sedimentary strata. Estimates of undiscovered uranium resources associated with sandstone-hosted deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain were made for geologic units with known uranium occurrences... the Eocene Claiborne and Jackson Groups, the Oligocene Catahoula Formation, the Miocene Oakville Sandstone, the Pliocene Goliad Sand and Willis Formation, and the Pleistocene Lissie Formation. Sandstone facies that host mineralization were deposited in mixed marine-coastal-fluvial facies (Claiborne and Jackson Groups) and by dominantly fluvial systems (Catahoula Formation, Oakville Sandstone, Goliad Sand, Willis and Lissie Formations). Uranium exploration is active throughout the region, and the Goliad Sand is host to two operating, in situ recovery mines, Alta Mesa and La Palangana.