Shirley Basin uranium area

The Shirley Basin uranium area is a uranium mine located in Carbon county, Wyoming.

About the MRDS Data:

All mine locations were obtained from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System. The locations and other information in this database have not been verified for accuracy. It should be assumed that all mines are on private property.

Mine Info

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Site Name

Primary: Shirley Basin uranium area
Secondary: Utah Mines
Secondary: Shirley Basin mine
Secondary: Petrotomics, Dave Pit
Secondary: Petrotomics Pit
Secondary: North Walker Mine
Secondary: Getty Mine (proposed, as of 1976)
Secondary: Nall Lease, Homestake Mine
Secondary: South Walker-Sullivan Mines
Secondary: Shirley Basin Uranium Mining District
Secondary: Kerr-McGee Corp. Pit
Secondary: Shirley Basin Uranium District

Commodity

Primary: Uranium

Location

State: Wyoming
County: Carbon
District: Shirley Basin uranium area

Land Status

Not available

Holdings

Not available

Workings

Not available

Ownership

Not available

Production

Year: 1974
Time Period: 1974
Mined: 390089.000 mt
Material type: "430,000 tons (no mention of what type of tons) were processed in the Shirley Basin District. Reserves are significant." (Minobras, 1976, p. 23)
Year: 2010
Mined: 16402343.710 mt
Material type: 18,080,489 tons ore from 7 mines

Deposit

Record Type: District
Operation Category: Past Producer
Operation Type: Unknown
Discovery Year: 1955
Years of Production:
Organization:
Significant: Y

Physiography

Not available

Mineral Deposit Model

Model Name: Sandstone U

Orebody

Not available

Structure

Not available

Alterations

Not available

Rocks

Not available

Analytical Data

Not available

Materials

Ore: Uraninite

Comments

Comment (Reserve-Resource): Dahlkamp (p. 176) says, "Uranium deposits occur in the central part of the basin. They contained original resources of more than 47,000 t U at grades ranging from <0.07 to 0.5% U."

Comment (Deposit): Dahlkamp, 2010, p. 179: "Ore bodies group in an area some 15 km in length and up to 5 km in width in the central part of the Sirley Basin. Major ore bodies lie at depths between 50 and 100 m at the edges of the earlier mentioned two oxidzed sandstone tongues."

Comment (Identification): Kerr-McGee Corp. Pit shown on Fig. 25 of PP-745 is not mentioned by this name in any of the other literature. Uncertain what this mine is.

Comment (Identification): Includes many properties including those owned by Cameco, Petrotomics, and Uranium Energy Corp.

Comment (Production): According to the values reported on MS-94 (Gregory and others, 2010), the 7 productive mines in the district produced a total of 18,080,489 tons of ore (not uranium). There is no mention of the ore grade, therefore total contained uranium can not be estimated. Productive mines: Pathfinder-Shirley Basin (7,170,586 tons), Night Owl (93 tons, small relative to the others in the area, but this is just east of the district), Uranium Supply-Jenkins (528,582 tons), North Walker (740,117 tons), South Walker (264,000 tons), Getty Oil-Petrotomics (9,372,211 tons), Nall (4,900 tons).

References

Reference (General): Gregory, R.W., Jones, R.W., and Cottingham, K.D., 2010, Uranium Map of Wyoming: Wyoyming State Geological Survey Map Series 94, scale 1:500,000.

Reference (Reserve-Resource): Cameco Annual Information Form 2010
URL: http://www.cameco.com/investors/financial_reporting/

Reference (Reserve-Resource): Dahlkamp, F.J., 2010, Uranium deposits of the World--USA and latin America, Ch. 2, Wyoming Basins, p. 149-207. [available at http://www.springerlink.com/content/g357j7q110q44r5p/fulltext.html]
Pages: p. 176.
URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/g357j7q110q44r5p/fulltext.html

Reference (Deposit): MINOBRAS, 1976, Uranium Guidebook for Wyoming, 63 p, and appendix.
Pages: p. 21-24.

Reference (Location): Geological Survey of Wyoming, 1970, Mines and Minerals Map of Wyoming: Geological Survey of Wyoming, scale 1:500,000.

Reference (Reserve-Resource): Cameco Annual Report, 2009, http://www.cameco.com/annual_report/2009/mda/reserves_resources/resources/
URL: http://www.cameco.com/annual_report/2009/mda/reserves_resources/resources/

Reference (Deposit): Osterwald and others, 1966, Mineral resources of Wyoming: Wyoming Geological Survey Bulletin 50 [rev.], p. 211.
Pages: p. 211.

Reference (Deposit): Harshman, E.N., 1972, Geology and uranium deposits, Shirley Basin area, Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Professionsl Paper 745, 82 p.

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