33 Critical Minerals in the West: How to Lead a Once-in-a-Generation Crisis to the Best Possible Outcome (Posters)

Tuesday, 20 May 2025
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM
Ballroom A&B

CRITICAL MINERAL MAPPING FROM LEGACY STREAM SAMPLES PARADOX BASIN, UTAH

Paper number: 33-2
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 8:00 AM – 5:30 PM

Authors

Abstract

In 1973 the Atomic Energy Commission created the National Uranium Resource Evaluation (NURE) program to evaluate and identify uranium resources across the United States. Out of about 30,000 stream sediment samples taken and geochemically analyzed under the NURE program, we selected 254 samples from the Paradox Basin of southeastern Utah to reanalyze using modern geochemical methods. The Paradox Basin is a world-class locality for sediment-hosted uranium-vanadium deposits and also has economic sediment-hosted copper mineralization. This new geochemical data was compiled and mapped to highlight areas of high critical mineral concentration in comparison to the legacy geochemical data and background lithology. These points were selected in part by using a catchment analysis and a watershed map created of the study area, in which areas were determined by GIS analysis of a digital elevation model. This watershed map in association with the reanalyzed and legacy data was used to determine preliminary field sites. In the field, we investigated anomalous points and took rock chip samples for geochemical analysis from surrounding bedrock, both visibly altered and unaltered. Areas of known past and current interest determined from the Utah Mineral Occurrence System (UMOS) were also investigated, and rock chip samples of mineralized, altered, and unaltered material were taken for geochemical analysis. Representative lithology rock chip samples of the most common units within the study area, determined by percent area of mapped unit in regional maps, were taken for geochemical analysis to determine baseline geochemistry and help identify anomalous metal values. This poster presents a comparison between original NURE geochemistry, the newly analyzed NURE geochemistry, and rock chip values from surrounding mineralize, altered, and representative lithologies.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025RM-409456

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