Uranium Mineralization in Hopi Buttes, Arizona: ABSTRACT

Abstract

The Hopi Buttes dominate the landscape north of Holbrook, Arizona, rising to heights of ~1,000 ft (305 m) above the surrounding countryside. The buttes, erosional remnants of lava-filled diatremes and associated sediment-filled diatremes, are approximately 5 m.y. in age. The volcanic rocks of the diatremes are limburgite and monchiquite, which are distinguished from normal alkalic basalts of the Colorado Plateau in their extreme silica unsaturation, high water, TiO2, and P2O5. Many trace elements are also unusually abundant, most notably Zr, Ba, Nb, Ce, and U (average value of about 4 ppm U compared to an average of 1 ppm for continental basalts). Many of the diatremes are filled with local maar lake sediments believed to have been deposit d in part by rising thermal solutions. Limestone lake beds locally resemble travertine deposits and contain high concentrations of phosphate, sulfate, Ba, Sr, and As, as well as U and Se. Areas of high Se content are recognizable in the Hopi Buttes by the abundance of Astragalus patersoni (loco weed). Approximately 300 diatremes occur in the Hopi Buttes area. Of 79 studied during the past year, 35 contain lake-bed deposits with radioactivity exceeding background levels. Scintillometer traverses have shown 20 of these diatremes to have radioactivity exceeding 5 times background. An airborne gamma-ray survey shows sharp-peaked anomalies over all 20 of these diatremes. Hydrogeochemical sampling in the area also revealed anomalous concentrations of uranium in spring and well waters from the Hopi Buttes area. Uranium ore was mined during the 1950s from the Morale claim. Production records show the average grade for 186 tons of ore was 0.15% U3O8. Extensive drilling in this diatreme in October 1979 revealed intervals within limestone and siltstone maar lake sediment up to 20 ft (6 m) thick and 500 × 300 ft (152 × 91 m) in area containing an average of 0.015% U3O8. The potential for uranium in the Hopi Buttes is for low grade deposits within 50 ft (15 m) of the surface, some of which may contain on the order of 100 tens of U3O8 per diatreme. End_of_Article - Last_Page 802------------