Recent and Not-So-Recent Developments in Uranium Deposits and Implications for Exploration.: MICHEL CUNEY and KURT KYSER. Pp. 271. Paperback, with CD-ROM. Mineralogical Association of Canada, Short Course Series, volume 39, 2009. ISBN 978-0-921294-48-1. Price US$50.00 outside Canada, C$50.00 in Canada, US$40.00/ C$40.00 MAC members.

Abstract

This volume and associated short course mark the 30th anniversary of the highly successful short course on uranium deposits held by Mineralogical Association of Canada (MAC), with similar goals of training exploration geologists after a period of low activity. The dramatic increase in the spot price for uranium in 2006 through 2008 spurred global exploration by major and junior exploration companies, but few experienced uranium geoscientists were available from the previous boom years. Although many of the basics remain little changed, the science of uranium deposits has evolved in many ways over 30 years. Microanalyses now yield more precise data that refine key geochemical parameters, and tectonics sets the geologic framework. Equally impressive are the new and large resource numbers for many deposit types, explained confidently by Cuney and Kyser, who have worked on diverse deposit types around the globe. They provide insightful reviews of deposits in the eastern hemisphere and on literature not available in English. Recent production is dominated by a few unconformity-related deposits with high grades, and in situ leaching of sandstone-hosted ores (each plant having small annual production). Data for reasonably assured and inferred resources show new trends, large resources are found in at least eight deposit types (geologic environments), volcanic and metasomatic deposit types are shown to contain important resources, and continued discoveries in …