Setting and Genesis of Uranium Mineralization at Rexspar

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 71, No. 800, 1978

V.A. Preto, Geologist, Geological Division, Mineral Deposits Branch, Ministry of Mines and Petroleum Resources, Victoria, British Columbia

The Rexspar uranium deposit is located approximately 5 kilometres south of Birch Island, B.C. Three separate zones of commercial-grade uranium mineralization mineable by open pit have been outlined.Uranium and fluorite-celestite mineralization occur in a trachytic member of alkali-feldspar porphyry, lithic tuff, tuff breccia andpyritic schist conformably interlayered with a succession of strongly deformed greenschists and fragmental rocks that are, in large part at least, of volcanic origin. The age of these strata is not precisely known, but they are considered as part of the possibly Mississippian Eagle Bay Formation. Commerical-grade uranium mineralization is always associated with fluorphlogopite-pyrite replacement of the trachytic unit and is contiguous to, but separate from, a zone of ore-grade fluorite mineralization. In all zones, ore occurs in lenses of variable thickness and lateral extent, which lie parallel to the schistosity of the trachytic rocks and surrounding greenschists.The principal radioactive minerals at Rexspar have been identified by other workers as uraninite, uranothorite, bastnaesite, torbernite and metatorbernite. Considerable amounts of thorium oxide and widespread rare earths have been reported from all three radioactive zones.The geology of the deposit suggests that the trachytic rocks represent a highly differentiated intrusive-extrusive system in which fluorphlogopite, pyrite, fluorite and uranium-bearing minerals were deposited late in the evolution of the system by deuteric, volatile-rich fluids. The considerable amounts of thorium and widespread rare earths associated with the uranium tend to support the thesis that this element is of primary origin rather than secondary.

Keywords: Uranium deposits, Rexspar deposits, Geology, Mineralization, Thorium, Fluorite, Breccias.