Some Aspects of the Genesis of the Uranium Deposits of the Morrison Formation in the Grants Uranium Region, New Mexico, Inferred from Chemical Characteristics of the Deposits

Statistical treatment of the chemical data for samples from the Church Rock, Smith Lake, Ambrosia Lake, and Laguna districts, all in the Grants uranium region, San Juan basin, indicates that primary ore-forming processes concentrated copper, iron, manganese, molybdenum, selenium, vanadium, yttrium, arsenic, organic carbon, and sulfur, along with uranium. The initial uranium and vanadium mineralization occurred before compaction of the host rocks. A barium halo associated with all of these deposits formed as a result of secondary processes. Calcium and strontium were also enriched in the ores by secondary processes. Comparison of the chemical characteristics of redistributed deposits in the Church Rock district with those of primary deposits in the Grants uranium region in icates that calcium, manganese, strontium, yttrium, copper, iron, molybdenum, lead, selenium, and vanadium are chemically separated from uranium during redistribution of the deposits in the Church Rock district. Comparisons of the chemical characteristics of the Church Rock deposits with those of the secondary deposits in the Ambrosia Lake district suggest some differences in the processes that were involved in the genesis of the redistributed deposits in these two areas.