From introduction: This report concerns work done by the Geological Survey on behalf of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission concerning sandstone-type uranium deposits.

Introduction: Detailed geologic mine mapping and sampling of the J.J. mine in the Jo dandy area, Montrose County, Colo., were undertaken to study a vanadium-uranium ore body in terms of the physical relationships of ore to host rock, the paragenetic sequence of ore minerals, and the sequential development of an oxidized suite of ore minerals from unoxidized ore.

Introduction: Thorium and rare-earth metals have come into strategic importance in this country in the last few years with the potential use of thorium in the production of atomic power and the development of new uses for the rare earths in the aircraft industry.

From introduction: This preliminary report details the geology and mineral deposits of the northern Elkhorn Mountains, Montana.

From introduction: This report concerns the investigation of uranium deposits in the Gas Hills area in July 1954.

From introduction: This report details the study to determine whether it might be worthwhile to attempt to recover uranium-bearing minerals that were previously dredged in a gold exploration in 1951 and discarded.

From introduction: The primary objective of these studies is to determine the content and distribution of uranium areally and stratigraphically in the Sharon Springs member of the Pierre shale of Late Cretaceous age.

From abstract: In 1951 uranium deposits containing carnotite were discovered in the southern Black Hills near Edgemont, Fall River County, S. Dak. Many carnotite deposits have since been found in sandstones in the Inyan Kara group of Early Cretaceous age, and uranium-bearing material has been discovered in the Minnelusa sandstone of Pennsylvanian age and the Deadwood formation of Cambrian age in the southern Black Hills. Ore has been produced only from the Inyan Kara group, mostly within an area of about 30 square miles along the southwest flank of the Black Hills uplift between Dewey and Hot Springs, in Custer and Fall River Counties. In addition, occurrences of uranium in other parts of the Black Hills and the surrounding area are known or reported in sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic rocks of pre-Cambrian to Tertiary age.

From abstract: Carnotite-bearing sandstone and claystone have been found in the Chadron formation of the White River group of Oligocene age in the southern part of the Slim Buttes area, Harding County, S. Dak. The carnotite is an efflorescent yellow coating on lenticular silicified sandstone. Locally, the mineralized sandstone contains 0.23 percent uranium. The uranium and vanadium ions are believed to have been derived from the overlying mildly radioactive tuffaceous rocks of the Arikaree formation of Miocene age. Analyses of water from 26 springs issuing from the Chadron and Arikaree formations along the margins of Slim Buttes show uranium contents of as much as 200 parts per billion. Meteoric water percolating through tuffaceous rocks is thought to have brought uranium and other ions into environments in the Chadron formation that were physically and chemically favorable for the deposition of carnotite.

Abstract: Most of the uranium deposits in the Uravan and Gateway mining districts are in the persistent upper sandstone stratum of the Salt Wash member of the Morrison formation. Areas in which this stratum is predominantly lenticular have been differentiated from areas in which the stratum is predominantly nonlenticular. The most favorable ground for uranium deposits is in areas of lenticular sandstone where the stratum is underlain by continuous altered greenish-gray mudstone. Ore is localized in scour-and-fill sandstone beds within favorable areas of lenticular sandstone. Regional control of the movement of ore-bearing solutions in the principal ore-bearing sandstone zone is indicated by belts of discontinuously altered mudstone transitional in a northerly and southerly direction from an area of unaltered mudstone to areas of continuously altered mudstone ; and an area of unaltered mudstone in which no ore deposits are found and an increase in size, number, and grade of ore deposits from areas of discontinuously altered to continuously altered mudstone. Discrete regional patterns of ore deposits and altered mudstone are associated with Tertiary structures; where these structures and favorable host rocks occur in juxtaposition, regional controls appear to have localized ore deposits.

From introduction: The need for fluorspar in the manufacture of open-hearth steel, hydrofluoric acid, aluminum, certain insecticides, refrigerants and airconditioning compounds, welding rods, 100-octane gasoline, and many other products necessary to the prosecution of World War II resulted in unprecedented demands for this commodity. To help increase production to meet these demands, the War Production Board in 1942 asked the United States Geological Survey to plan a comprehensive study of the fluorspar deposits in the United States. This study has been carried on in many parts of the country in cooperation with geologists and engineers of State and Federal agencies and with local producers.

From abstract: The mapped area of the Henryetta mining district includes about 168 square miles in Okmulgee County in the east-central part of Oklahoma. The rocks in this district consist of sandstone, silty shale, and shale, and are divided into the Senora formation and the overlying Calvin sandstone of Pennsylvanian age.

From abstract: The Happy Jack mine is in the White Canyon area, San Juan County, Utah. Production is from high-grade uranium deposits in the Shinarump conglomerate of Triassic age. The Shinarump strata range from 161/2 to 40 feet in thickness and the lower part of these beds fills an eastward-trending channel that is more than 750 feet wide and 10 feet deep.

From abstract: Radioactive material in apparently significant amounts was recognized in heavy-mineral concentrates from the gravels of four streams that head in Ear Mountain, Alaska, when collections of the United States Geological Survey were examined for radioactivity in the winter of 1944-45. This area, on the north side of the Seward Peninsula, attracted attention in 1901-02 when cassiterite was discovered in the streams. Subsequent attempts were made to develop copper- and tin-bearing lode deposits.

From abstract: Coal and carbonaceous shale of the Dakota formation of Cretaceous age were examined for radioactivity in the Colorado Plateau of southwestern Colorado and northwestern New Mexico during the summer of 1953.

From abstract: Uranium minerals and radioactivity anomalies occur in many silver lead veins and chalcedony veins and vein zones in the Boulder batholith of southwestern Montana.

From abstract: Metatorbernite and bassetite are present in altered carbonaceous and quartzose slate of probable upper Huronian age. The slate is part of a small inlier of Huronian rocks between the Gwinn iron district to the southeast and the Marquette iron district to the northwest, Marquette County, Mich. Samples taken from a shallow trench, which was dug in the area of highest radioactivity, contained as much as 0.68 percent uranium. A 4-foot channel sample of the slate contained 0.036 percent uranium.

From abstract: A reconnaissance radioactivity survey of the Anaconda Copper Mining Company open-pit copper mine at Yerington, Nevada, was made in October 1953 to investigate the reported occurrence on one of the mine dumps of rock containing 0.022 percent uranium.

From abstract: The uranium deposits of the Mayoworth area, Johnson County. Wyo., are in oolitic limestone at the base of the Sundance formation of Late Jurassic age. The uranium mineral has been identified as metatyuyamunite, a hydrous calcium uranium vanadate, that coats joints and fractures and replaces calcite in both the cement and the oolites. The known deposits of the area are of sub-ore grade, have a high lime content, and are not of economic importance at this time.

Photogeologic map noting topographic and geologic features of the Mount Peale 3 SW Quadrangle, San Juan County, Utah. Scale 1:24,000.

From abstract: A refraction seismic survey was made on Holiday Mesa, San Juan County, Utah, between May 21 and June 11, 1954, prior to an exploratory drilling program made by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to delineate channel trends in the area.

From abstract: The chromite deposits of the central part of the Stillwater complex lie in a belt 9 miles long between the valleys of Boulder River and the West Fork of the Stillwater River in Sweet Grass County, Mont. The chromite occurs as layers near the middle part of the ultramafic zone in the lower part of the complex. The layers, originally horizontal, have been tilted so that they dip northeastwards at angles ranging from nearly horizontal to nearly vertical, and are cut by many cross faults, the largest with a horizontal offset of 3,000 feet. Investigations by the United States Geological Survey and the United States Bureau of Mines have shown that in this belt there are 5 sections ranging in length from 850 to 3,800 feet along the strike where the continuity and grade of the chromite can be reasonably inferred.

From abstract: Slope and Bowman Counties, N. Dak., include an area of about 2,450 square miles in the southeastern part of the Fort Union coal region of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana. In anticipation of a future increase in the demand for the low-rank coal of this region as a fuel for electric power plants and as a raw material for various chemical synthesizing processes, Slope and Bowman Counties were investigated for deposits of lignite that could be mined by large scale strip mining methods. All the lignite beds of economic importance in this area are in the Fort Union formation, particularly in the Tongue River member. The beds are nearly horizontal, dipping about 25 to 50 feet per mile north and northeast from the Cedar Creek anticline in the southwest corner of the area.

Abstract: San Miguel bench includes about 4 square miles in the southern part of T. 48 N., R. 17 W., New Mexico principal meridian, Montrose County, Colorado. Production of carnotite ore from the area has been about 15, 000 short tons having an estimated average graderof 0. 31 percent U3O8,and 1. 6 percent V2 05 Nearly all of the carnotite deposits occur in a single-continuous sandstone bed near the top of the Salt Wash member of the Jurassic Morrison formation. These deposits consist chiefly of sandstone impregnated with uranium- and vanadium-bearing minerals. They are irregular tabular-shaped masses ranging in size from a few short tons to 30, 000 short tons or more of minable carnotite ore. During the period November 27, 1951, to April 17, 1953, the U. S. Geological Survey drilled 309 holes totaling 92, 194 feet on the San Miguel bench. Reserves total about 43, 000 short tons of material 1 foot or more thick and contain 0,.10 percent or more U30 or 1. 0 percent or more V205. Of these reserves 3, 300 short tons occur in private land. These reserves are in ten deposits found by Geological Survey drilling. Potential reserves (reserves based on geologic evidence …