Deposit types/Gold, Uranium

Quartz-pebble conglomerate gold-uranium (Witwatersrand type)

Gold, uranium and some platinum-group metals in ancient river-laid conglomerate beds.

What it is

Gold, uranium and some platinum-group metals in ancient river-laid conglomerate beds.1

How it forms

Rivers on alluvial fans washed gold and uraninite into thick basins on ancient cratons. A low-oxygen atmosphere is thought to have kept detrital pyrite and uraninite from dissolving. Slow subsidence preserved the beds.1

Host rocks

Mature quartz-pebble conglomerate within thick sandstone and conglomerate over Archean granite-greenstone.1

Where it forms

Slowly subsiding Archean craton basins.1

How old

Major deposits Archean to Early Proterozoic (3,100 to 2,200 Ma); Tarkwa about 1,900 Ma1

Mines of this type

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Mines

An example ofWitwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887See Witwatersrand main reef mines, 1886 to 1887, an example of this deposit type.1An example ofMponengSee Mponeng, an example of this deposit type.1An example ofCrown MinesSee Crown Mines, an example of this deposit type.1An example ofRobinson Deep mineSee Robinson Deep mine, an example of this deposit type.1An example ofEast Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM)See East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM), an example of this deposit type.1An example ofTauTonaSee TauTona, an example of this deposit type.1

Sources

  1. Mineral Deposit Models (Bulletin 1693, Cox and Singer, eds., 1986) US Geological Survey

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Underground mining equipment by Kaupo Kikkas, CC BY-SA 4.0. Pictures: Kimberley, South Africa: miners and washing gear at the Bultfontein diamond mine. Woodburytype, 1888, after a photograph by Robert Harris., Harris, Robert, active 1881-1888. (Public Domain Mark 1.0); San Francisco, California: the Golden Gate bay area. Photograph, ca. 1880., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).