Turner and Turner report that DIR Exploration, Inc., has established a geochemical technology that permits pre-drilling estimation of the magnitude of uranium resources present in northern Arizona collapse breccia pipes by surface sampling the primary metal leakage surrounding these structures. The accuracy and reliability of the method is sufficient to serve as a rapid and very cost-effective substitute for much of the exploration drilling historically applied to breccia pipe prospects.
Three main factors have been determined to govern the extent of uranium and metal sulfide mineralization in collapse breccia pipes during the breccia pipe mineralization process. These factors are:
1) timed existence of bacterial feedstock (oil),
2) upwelling, metal-rich brines, and
3) consequent generation of two proximal geochemical reduction barriers capable of precipitating metal sulfides and uraninite from upwelling mineralizing fluids.independent geochemical parameters found in metal leakage values from bulk surface rock chip samples serve as proxies for the breccia pipe mineralization-controlling factors just described.
Multi-variable linear regression of these four parameters against published uranium reserves plus-production figures from each test case produced a linear equation that predicts 97.95% of the variation in log value of the uranium resource present in the sampled cases. The statistical nature of the defined linear equation is such that its application to hitherto undrilled breccia pipe targets in northern Arizona is very strongly justified. Test application of the equation to 23 unmined breccia pipes with appreciable exploration drilling already completed verifies the results of the statistical tests of the linear equation. This report shows that geochemical modeling of surface sample data can be used as an inexpensive and much more rapidly deployed substitute for much of the exploration drilling to determine the economic potential of Arizona deposits.
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