International Symposium on Uranium Raw Material for the Nuclear Fuel Cycle: Exploration, Mining, Production, Supply and Demand, Economics and Environmental Issues (URAM-2018)

URANIUM POTENTIAL IN GREENLAND: AN UPDATE

27 Jun 2018, 17:00

1h

Vienna

POSTER Track 3. Applied geology and geometallurgy of uranium and associated metals Poster Session

Speaker

Dr Kristine Thrane (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland)

Description

The uranium potential in Greenland is considered relatively high with several known uranium occurrences. In 2016, a workshop on the ‘Assessment of the uranium potential in Greenland’ was held. Three uranium deposit types were chosen for the assessment: intrusive, sandstone hosted and unconformity-related. The main conclusion of the workshop was that the intrusive and unconformity-related deposits have the highest probability of having formed uranium deposits in Greenland. Existing evidence from aeroradiometric and drainage surveys combined with field investigations points to South Greenland as the most prospective region for additional hidden or unrecognised intrusive-type uranium occurrences. Highest ranked tracts were the Mesoproterozoic Ilímaussaq and Motzfeldt alkaline igneous intrusions. In addition, both the Central Domain and the Southern Domain of South Greenland were ranked as having a high potential for containing undiscovered intrusive deposits. Favourable geological settings for unconformity-related uranium mineralisation were identified. The highest ranked tracts comprise the two Mesoproterozoic basin formations that rest unconformably on Palaeoproterozoic or Archaean basement, namely the Eriksfjord Formation in South Greenland and the Thule Supergroup in North Greenland.