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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

Utah Geological Association

Abstract


Mining Districts of Utah, 2006
Pages 551-564

The Uranium—Vanadium Deposits of the Utah Portion of the Monument Valley District

William L. Chenoweth

Abstract

The Monument Valley district includes parts of San Juan County, Utah and Apache and Navajo Counties, Arizona. The vast majority of the uranium that has been produced was from the Arizona portion. However, Utah contains some important deposits. Although the district is within the Navajo Indian Reservation, the two largest properties in Utah are on School and Institutional Trust Land sections within the reservation.

The uranium-vanadium deposits in the Monument Valley district occur in channels of the Shinarump Conglomerate Member of the Triassic Chinle Formation that were incised into the underlying Moenkopi Formation and subsequently filled with fluvial sediments. Carbonaceous sandstone and other organic debris such as fossil logs are the main hosts for the ore deposits. Both the oxidized and the unoxidized uranium minerals have been identified. A single channel which extends from Rock Door Mesa westward to Oljeto and Holiday Mesas contained nearly 51 percent of the uranium produced. The first mining occurred in Utah in 1944, when uranium was used to color ceramics and glass. Production in Utah resumed in 1949, with the procurement programs of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). During the years 1944, and 1949 through 1966, a total of 54, 033 tons of uranium ore containing 322,802 pounds of uranium oxide (U3O8) averaging 0.30 percent U3O8 was produced from 14 mines. These ores also contained 532,739 pounds of vanadium oxide (V2O5) and an unknown amount of copper. Miners were paid for their vanadium, but not all of it was recovered at the mills. By 1966, all of the economic ore had been mined out, and the mines have become inactive. The channel trends are well known and well explored. The probability of new discoveries in the future is poor.


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