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Min, M., Chen, J., Wang, J., Wei, G., & Fayek, M. (2005). Mineral paragenesis and textures associated with sandstone-hosted roll-front uranium deposits, NW China. Ore Geology Reviews, 26(1), 51–69.
Abstract: We present a first paragenetic study of the Wuyier, Wuyisan, Wuyiyi and Shihongtan sandstone-hosted roll-front uranium deposits, northwest China. The mineralization is hosted by Lower–Middle Jurassic coarse- to medium-grained sandstones, which are dark-gray to black due to a mixture of ore minerals and carbonaceous debris. The sandstone is alluvial fan-braided river facies. Minerals associated with these deposits can be broadly categorized as detrital, authigenic, and ore-stage mineralization. Ore minerals consist of uraninite and coffinite. This is the first noted occurrence of coffinite in this type of deposit in China. Sulfide minerals associated with the uranium minerals are pyrite, marcasite, and less commonly, sphalerite and galena. The sulfide minerals are largely in textural equilibrium with the uranium minerals. However, these sulfide minerals occasionally appear to predate, as well as postdate, the uranium minerals. This implies that there are multiple generations of sulfides associated with these deposits. The ore minerals occur interstitially between fossilized wood cells in the sandstones as well as replace fossilized wood and biotite. The deposits are generally low-grade. Primary uranium minerals associated with the low-grade deposits are generally too small, ranging from 0.2 to 0.3 μm in diameter, to be observed by optical microscopy and are only observed by electron microscopy. Mineral paragenesis and textures indicate that these deposits formed under low temperature (30–50 °C) conditions.
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Rallakis, D., Michels, R., Cathelineau, M., Parize, O., & Brouand, M. (2021). Conditions for uranium biomineralization during the formation of the Zoovch Ovoo roll-front-type uranium deposit in East Gobi Basin, Mongolia. Ore Geology Reviews, 138, 104351.
Abstract: The Zoovch Ovoo uranium roll-front-type deposit is hosted in the Sainshand Formation, a Late Cretaceous siliciclastic reservoir, which constitutes the upper part of the post-rift infilling of the Mesozoic East Gobi Basin in SE Mongolia. The Sainshand Formation consists of unconsolidated medium-grained sand, silt and clay intervals deposited in fluvial-lacustrine settings. The uranium deposit is confined within a 60–80 m thick siliciclastic sequence inside aquifer-driven systems. The overall system experienced shallow burial and was never subjected to temperatures higher than 40 °C. This study proposes a comprehensive metallogenic model for this uranium deposit. Sedimentological and mineralogical observations from drill core samples to the microscopic scale (optical and Scanning Electron Microscopy) together with in situ geochemistry of late-formed phases (Laser Ablation–Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry, Electron Probe Microanalysis, Fourier Transform–Infrared Spectroscopy) were considered for the reconstruction of the main stages of U trapping. In the mineralized zone, the uranium ore is expressed as Ca–enriched uraninite (UO2) and less commonly as Ca–enriched phospho-coffinite (U, P)SiO4. Trapping mechanisms include i) complexation (i.e. uranyl-carboxyl complexes), ii) adsorption on organic or clay particles) and iii) reduction by pyrite and by bacterial activity to amorphous uraninite. In all cases, the organic matter plays either the role of trap for uranium or nutrient for bacteria that can trap uranium through their metabolism. The shallow burial diagenesis conditions do not allow direct reduction of U(VI) by organic carbon. The δ34S values of the iron disulfide are very diverse, fluctuating in extreme cases between −50 to + 50‰, with an average δ34S value for framboidal pyrite at 2‰, and −20‰ for euhedral pyrite. The positive and negative values reflect close versus open fractionation systems, while bacterial sulphate reduction (BSR) is active during the whole diagenetic history of the deposit as an essential source of reduced sulfur. Therefore, using detrital organic matter as a carbon source, microorganisms play a significant role in uranium trapping, either as a direct reducing agent for uranium or pyrite formation, which will trap uranium through redox driven epigenetic processes.
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Min, M., Xu, H., Chen, J., & Fayek, M. (2005). Evidence of uranium biomineralization in sandstone-hosted roll-front uranium deposits, northwestern China. Ore Geology Reviews, 26(3), 198–206.
Abstract: We show evidence that the primary uranium minerals, uraninite and coffinite, from high-grade ore samples (U3O8\textgreater0.3%) in the Wuyiyi, Wuyier, and Wuyisan sandstone-hosted roll-front uranium deposits, Xinjiang, northwestern China were biogenically precipitated and psuedomorphically replace fungi and bacteria. Uranium (VI), which was the sole electron acceptor, was likely to have been enzymically reduced. Post-mortem accumulation of uranium may have also occurred through physio-chemical interaction between uranium and negatively-charged cellular sites, and inorganic adsorption or precipitation reactions. These results suggest that microorganisms may have played a key role in formation of the sandstone- or roll-type uranium deposits, which are among the most economically significant uranium deposits in the world.
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Paradis, C. J., Hoss, K. N., Meurer, C. E., Hatami, J. L., Dangelmayr, M. A., Tigar, A. D., et al. (2022). Elucidating mobilization mechanisms of uranium during recharge of river water to contaminated groundwater. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 251, 104076.
Abstract: The recharge of stream water below the baseflow water table can mobilize groundwater contaminants, particularly redox-sensitive and sorptive metals such as uranium. However, in-situ tracer experiments that simulate the recharge of stream water to uranium-contaminated groundwater are lacking, thus limiting the understanding of the potential mechanisms that control the mobility of uranium at the field scale. In this study, a field tracer test was conducted by injecting 100 gal (379 l) of oxic river water into a nearby suboxic and uranium-contaminated aquifer. The traced river water was monitored for 18 days in the single injection well and in the twelve surrounding observation wells. Mobilization of uranium from the solid to the aqueous phase was not observed during the tracer test despite its pre-test presence being confirmed on the aquifer sediments from lab-based acid leaching. However, strong evidence of oxidative immobilization of iron and manganese was observed during the tracer test and suggested that immobile uranium was likely in its oxidized state as U(VI) on the aquifer sediments; these observations ruled out oxidation of U(IV) to U(VI) as a potential mobilization mechanism. Therefore, desorption of U(VI) appeared to be the predominant potential mobilization mechanism, yet it was clearly not solely dependent on concentration as evident when considering that uranium-poor river water (\textless0.015 mg/L) was recharged to uranium-rich groundwater (≈1 mg/L). It was possible that uranium desorption was limited by the relatively higher pH and lower alkalinity of the river water as compared to the groundwater; both factors favor immobilization. However, it was likely that the immobile uranium was associated with a mineral phase, as opposed to a sorbed phase, thus desorption may not have been possible. The results of this field tracer study successfully ruled out two common mobilization mechanisms of uranium: (1) oxidative dissolution and (2) concentration-dependent desorption and ruled in the importance of advection, dispersion, and the mineral phase of uranium.
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Yabusaki, S. B., Fang, Y., Long, P. E., Resch, C. T., Peacock, A. D., Komlos, J., et al. (2007). Uranium removal from groundwater via in situ biostimulation: Field-scale modeling of transport and biological processes. Journal of Contaminant Hydrology, 93(1), 216–235.
Abstract: During 2002 and 2003, bioremediation experiments in the unconfined aquifer of the Old Rifle UMTRA field site in western Colorado provided evidence for the immobilization of hexavalent uranium in groundwater by iron-reducing Geobacter sp. stimulated by acetate amendment. As the bioavailable Fe(III) terminal electron acceptor was depleted in the zone just downgradient of the acetate injection gallery, sulfate-reducing organisms came to dominate the microbial community. In the present study, we use multicomponent reactive transport modeling to analyze data from the 2002 field experiment to identify the dominant transport and biological processes controlling uranium mobility during biostimulation, and determine field-scale parameters for these modeled processes. The coupled process simulation approach was able to establish a quantitative characterization of the principal flow, transport, and reaction processes based on the 2002 field experiment, that could be applied without modification to describe the 2003 field experiment. Insights gained from this analysis include field-scale estimates of the bioavailable Fe(III) mineral threshold for the onset of sulfate reduction, and rates for the Fe(III), U(VI), and sulfate terminal electron accepting processes.
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