Alaska Uranium - 2020 Updates

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

A Wikipedia summary indicates that uranium was discovered at the Ross-Adams deposit in 1955 by an airborne gamma radiation survey. The deposit is at Bokan Mountain on Prince of Wales Island. The principal ore mineral was uranothorite, which occurred in veinlets in granite. Accessory minerals were primarily hematite and calcite, with lesser amounts of fluorite, pyrite, galena, quartz, and rare earth minerals. The first mining was done in 1957, when ore was removed from an open pit 25 to 75 feet (8 to 23 m) wide, 370 feet (110 m) long, and 30 feet (9 m) deep. Additional mining took place in 1959–1964 and 1970–1971. A total of 1.3 million pounds (590 t) of uranium were produced, with all of the milling taking place in Washington and Utah.For more on the Bokan Mountain deposit, see: 
E.M. MacKevett Jr. (1963) Geology and Ore Deposits of the Bokan Mountain Uranium-Thorium Area, Southeastern Alaska, US Geological Survey, Bulletin 1154.

Other significant uranium, thorium, and REE mineralization have also been reported in the eastern areas of the Seward Peninsula. These elements have been concentrated in dikes in igneous and metamorphic rocks located on the south-eastern flanks of the 35-mile, circular McCarthy Basin (a candidate impact crater?). Roll-front uranium mineralization has been reported to the north-east in a small, fault-bound basin adjacent to the McCarthy Basin on the east. The McCarthy Basin is at least 17,000 feet  deep and contains reported lignite and other fluvial and paludal sediments of likely early Tertiary age. The mineralized rocks on the eastern periphery of the basin represents the likely source of uranium for probable roll-front uranium deposits in the larger basin. Drilling is required, of course, to confirm that the eastern section of this large basin represents a new uranium district as yet unexplored. For additional information on this area, see: http://www.i2mconsultants.com/downloads/corp/JGG-2-023.pdf, especially page 44.

While drilling, a core of the contact between the basin sediments and underlying rock will reveal whether the origin of this circular basin is a result of a meteor/comet impact ....  occurring in the late Cretaceous? Could this be a companion to the Chicxulub crater in Mexico?

Original working URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uranium_mining_in_the_United_States#Alaska