Uranium Deposits in Fall River County, South Dakota (open access)

Uranium Deposits in Fall River County, South Dakota

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.
Date: 1955
Creator: Bell, Henry & Bales, W. E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Carnotite-Bearing Sandstone in Cedar Canyon, Slim Buttes, Harding County, South Dakota (open access)

Carnotite-Bearing Sandstone in Cedar Canyon, Slim Buttes, Harding County, South Dakota

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.
Date: 1955
Creator: Gill, James R. & Moore, George William
System: The UNT Digital Library