Silver Plume Granite; possible source of uranium in sandstone uranium deposits, Tallahassee Creek and High Park areas, Fremont and Teller counties, Colorado

Abstract

Anomalously high concentrations of thorium and of the light rare earth elements lanthanum and cerium suggest that the actinides and light lanthanides were enriched to an abnormal degree by the magmatic processes that formed the Proterozoic Y Silver Plume Granite in areas adjoining Tallahassee Creek and High Park. However, no such enrichment is found in the Proterozoic X Boulder Creek Granodiorite. Although uranium presently does not appear to be significantly enriched in sampled outcrops of Silver Plume Granite, a large part of the original uranium content of Silver Plume may have been removed by oxidizing ground waters, leaving behind mainly the uranium bound in resistate minerals such as zircon and monazite. Lead isotopic compositions of acid leachate from barren shale and sandstone associated with the Hansen uranium deposit (Tallahassee Creek area) indicate that (1) the predominant source of acid-soluble lead is 1410 m.y: old (Silver Plume age); (2) the source of the lead is characterized by Th/U around 1 (this ratio in the source may apply to soluble minerals only and may exclude thorium and uranium in resistate minerals), and the mean uranium content of this source may be as high as 30 ppm; and (3) at the time of sediment deposition, a paleohydrologic system existed that was capable of transporting Silver Plume lead and, therefore, Silver Plume uranium to the Hansen deposit. Although a significant contribution of uranium from Tertiary volcanic rocks cannot be ruled out and is even probable (Dickinson and Hills, 1982), it appears probable that some of the uranium in deposits of the Tallahassee Creek area was derived from Silver Plume Granite.