Recent and Not-So-Recent Developments in Uranium Deposits and Implications for Exploration

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

Date posted: 05/28/16

Mineralogical Association of Canada Short Course Series Volume 39 by Cuney and Kyser (2008) report that the purpose of the subject short course, cosponsored by the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA) and MAC, is to highlight data and research that have developed over the past 30 years, as well as new techniques and ideas that can be integrated into effective exploration strategies for uranium. MAC was among the first organizations to support a short course on uranium, which was presented as its third short course volume in 1978 entitled Uranium Deposits - Their Mineralogy and Origin and edited by M.M. Kimberley. This has been used in both undergraduate and graduate courses on mineral deposits geology and by the exploration industry. New models developed for different deposits and the mechanisms that control their genesis are central themes in this new short course volume. The lack of interest in uranium by the mining industry and subsequently by the research community was largely the result of the low spot price which began in 1987 and continued until recently. The low price of uranium had a ripple effect in that not only were expenditures in exploration for uranium depressed, but support for research in uranium deposit studies also decreased. Despite the lack of uranium exploration and support for research, some government organizations and companies that specialized in uranium such as Uranerz, Cameco and Cogema (now AREVA) continued to support research, albeit at a reduced level. The authors of this volume are among those who continued with their university research on uranium through such support. During this time in the former Soviet Union and then Russia, critical, research continued. During the 1990s, other nations such as Japan, India and China continued their research efforts as nuclear energy was strategic in their energy policies and they were less tied to the global market.