미국
U-Pb age determinations of uraninite by electron microprobe analyses of ore samples from two solution-collapse breccia pipe uranium deposits, Grand Canyon region, northwest Arizona, USA
This data release compiles the electron microprobe spot analyses of U, Th, and Pb concentrations in uraninite (U oxide) particles, and corresponding calculated age determinations, measured in samples of ore from two uranium-copper breccia pipe ore bodies, the Canyon (Pinyon Plain) and Hack II deposits. The U-rich samples that were analyzed typify the deposits hosted by solution-collapse breccia pipes in the Grand Canyon region of northwestern Arizona. Applying procedures outlined by Bowles (1990), the U, Pb, and Th measurements from each spot analysis were used to calculate a model age for the formation of each uraninite particle. The U, Pb, and Th analyses and calculated age determinations are provided as additional information on the timing and origin of the uranium deposition within the unusual breccia pipe deposits of northwestern Arizona. One of the analyzed samples (CMCH-053-21A) was selected from drill core of a U-Cu ore body of the Canyon deposit, hosted in a solution-collapse breccia pipe. This deposit lies about 750 to 2,000 ft (230 to 610 m) below the surface about 6.1 miles (10 km) south-southeast of Tusayan, Arizona, at latitude 35.88333 North, longitude -112.09583 West (datum WGS 1984). Energy Fuels Inc., owner and operator of the property, conducted extensive drilling into the Canyon deposit, delineating the extent and uranium and copper content of the ore bodies (Mathisen and others, 2017). Mining facilities, including a shaft, have been developed by Energy Fuels at the deposit. The company renamed the Canyon mine as the “Pinyon Plain mine” in 2021. As of October 2021, they await favorable economic conditions to resume mining operations and recover the ore. An earlier-published data release (Van Gosen and others, 2020a) provides the geochemical analyses of 63 elements for 35 drill core samples of the Canyon deposit that were collected by the USGS. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses were performed on 28 of these samples to examine their mineralogy; the raw XRD data are provided in Van Gosen and others (2020a). In addition to the XRD analyses, ore mineralogy was also determined by examinations of thin sections of 21 of the ore samples using a scanning electron microscope equipped with an energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS). The mineralogical analyses are published in Van Gosen and others (2020c). The bulk geochemistry and mineralogy of Canyon deposit sample CHCH-053-21A, analyzed in this study, is provided in Van Gosen and others (2020a, 2020b). The geochemical and mineralogical analysis of ore samples collected from the Hack II deposit, also hosted by a solution-collapse breccia pipe, are published in another data release (Van Gosen and others, 2020b). That data release includes the bulk geochemistry and mineralogy of samples 84-HJW-12 and 84-HJW-3A, which were examined by this study. The Hack II deposit is one of four breccia pipes mined in Hack Canyon near its intersection with Robinson Canyon, approximately 30 miles (48 km) southwest of Fredonia and 9 miles (14.5 km) north-northwest of Kanab Creek, at latitude 36.58219 north, longitude -112.81059 west (datum of WGS84). Mining began at Hack II in 1981 and ended in May 1987. The USGS collected the samples from the Hack II mine in 1984 from underground exposures during active mining. The Canyon and Hack II deposits are representative of numerous other uranium deposits hosted by solution-collapse breccia pipes in the Grand Canyon region of northwest Arizona. These U-Cu deposits occur within matrix-supported, vertical columns of breccia (a "breccia pipe") that formed by solution and collapse of sedimentary strata (Wenrich, 1985; Alpine, 2010). The breccia pipes average about 300 ft (90 m) in diameter and can extend vertically for as much as 3,000 ft (900 m), from their base in the Mississippian Redwall Limestone to as stratigraphically high as the Triassic Chinle Formation. The regions north, south, and east of the Grand Canyon host hundreds of