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Great Divide Basin Uranium District

Producer in Sweetwater county in Wyoming, United States with commodity Uranium
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Sections on this page
  1. Identification information
  2. Geographic coordinates
  3. Site location context
  4. Geographic areas
  5. Public Land Survey System information
  6. Commodities
  7. Mineral occurrence model information
  8. Nearby scientific data
  9. Economic information about the deposit and operations
  10. Production statistics
  11. Bibliographic references
  12. General comments
  13. Reporter information

Geologic information

Identification information

Deposit ID 10400646
Record type District
Current site name Great Divide Basin Uranium District

Geographic coordinates

Geographic coordinates: -108.0884, 42.08892 (WGS84)
Location accuracy 10000(meters)
Relative position Great Divide Basin is a large diffuse area. Coordinates are for near the center of the western edge of the eastern clump of prospects, roughly T24-25N, R94-95W. This is not the geographic center of the "district."

Site location context

Political divisions (FIPS codes)

Sweetwater(county)

Wyoming(state)

United States(country)

North America(continent)

Land(continent)

USGS map quadrangles

Eagles Nest Draw(quadrangle 1:24,000 scale)

South Pass(quadrangle 1:100,000 scale)

Lander(quadrangle 1:250,000 scale)

Hydrologic units (watersheds)

Great Divide Closed Basin(hydrologic unit)

Great Divide Closed Basin(hydrologic accounting unit)

Great Divide-Upper Green(hydrologic subregion)

Upper Colorado(hydrologic region)

Federal lands

Bureau of Land Management(Bureau of Land Management WY)

Bureau of Land Management WY BLM(Type of land area)

BLM(Federal land areas administered by BLM)

Geographic areas

Country State County
United States Wyoming Sweetwater

Public Land Survey System information

Meridian Township Range Section Fraction State
6th Principal 21N to 27N 091W to 104W Wyoming

Comments on the location information

  • Great Divide Basin shown on MS-94 as covering most of the NE quadrant of Sweetwater Co. Most of the prospects are in the eastern 1/3 of the "district". There are a few prospects (Pard, is one of them) in the extreme NW corner of the area.
  • "District" is in four 2-degree quadrangles: Lander, Rock Springs, Rawlins, and Casper.

Commodities

Commodity Importance
Uranium Primary

Mineral occurrence model information

Model code 204
USGS model code 30c
Deposit model name Sandstone U

Nearby scientific data

(1) -108.0884, 42.08892
ListMap

Economic information

Comments on the geologic information

  • The basin "is unique in that, except for the northern portion, the basin is closed, structurally, and all drainage is interior, with streams and lakes being intermittent." "Within the basin lies a portion of the Red Desert. This area contains large low-grade uraniferous coal deposits [...]." (MINOBRAS, 1976, p. 48)

Economic information about the deposit and operations

Development status Producer
Commodity type E

Comments on exploration

  • "In 1936, schroeckingerite was discovered at the Lost Creek deposit [...]. Subsequently, in 1945, uranium minerals were found in carbonaceous shale and coal beds at Sourdough Butte (Sec. 35, T23N, R94W)."

Production statistics

  • Year 2010
    Material 2,805,198 short tons ore
    Ore mined 2544832.81mt

Comments on the production information

  • "Past production from [Great Divide Basin] area has come from the Lone Wolf Mine [see no. 1, pl. 17, p. 49] and from the State School Section Mine [no. 2, pl. 17, p. 49]." (MINOBRAS, 1976, p. 50). Gregory and others, 2010, MS-94 list the productive mines as Pard (in the extreme NW corner of the district) at 426 tons, Ogle (in Bison Basin) at 68,400 tons, Golden Arrow (Lost Creek Shrockingerite) at 5 tons, Lone Wolf at 23 tons, Sweetwater at 2,736,120 tons, and School Section at 224 tons.
  • According to the values reported on MS-94 (Gregory and others, 2010), the 6 productive mines in the district produced a total of 2,805,198 tons of ore (not uranium). There is no mention of the ore grade, therefore total contained uranium can not be estimated.

Comments on development

  • As of 2010, contains 4 proposed uranium projects: West Alkali Creek (Bison Basin), Jab, Antelope, and Lost Creek (see MS-94).
  • MINOBRAS, 1976, p. 50, states: "Reportedly Union Oil Company has plans for developing a new mine in approximatetly se.c 16, T24N, R93W. Target for this exploration is apparently the sandstone and confglomerate beds within the Battle Spring Formation (Eocene)." This is very close to the location of the Sweetwater Mine and Mill that produced between 1,500,001 and 5,000,000 short tons of redox ore shown on MS-94.

Reference information

Bibliographic references

  • Deposit

    MINOBRAS, 1976, Uranium Guidebook for Wyoming, p. 48-50.

  • Deposit

    Gregory, R.W., Jones, R.W., and Cottingham, K.D., 2010, Uranium map for Wyoming: Wyoming State Geological Survey Map Series 94, scale 1:500,000.

  • Deposit

    Bailey, R.V., 1969, Uranium deposits in the Great Divide Basin-Crooks Gap area, Fremont and Sweetwater Counties, Wyoming, in Parker, R.B., ed., Wyoming Uranium Issue: Contributions to Geology, v. 8, no. 2, pt. 1, p. 105-120.

General comments

Subject category Comment text
Deposit "The Lost Creek deposit (T26N, R94W, secs. 30-31, and T25N, R95w, sec. 1) [...] occurs within the Cyclone Rim fault zone. It contains the only known schroeckingerite deposit in Wyoming, consisting of bright yellow water-soluable round pelletal aggregates containing 27% U3O8. The mineral is also disseminated as flakes and in thin layers within shales, sandstones, clay and siltstones of the Wasatch and Green River Formations. Associated minerals are uraniferous coal, carbonate and gypsum. Mineralized beds are 2 to 3 feet thick, in contact with iron-stained sandstones. Production from these deposits, also known as the Golden Arrow Mine [see no. 3, pl. 17, p. 49] began in 1954 continuing intermittently until 1966. Grade of ores mine[d] was in the range of 0.013 to 0.25% U3O8." (MINOBRAS, 1976, p. 48, 50)

Reporter information

Type Date Name Affiliation Comment
Reporter 2012-03-06 Wilson, Anna B. U.S. Geological Survey

Beyond USGS

Supplemental information added by qvyshift.com. Not part of the original USGS MRDS record.

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