Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2013, 1, 347-352 Published Online November 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/jmmce) http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/jmmce.2013.16053 Crystallographic Study of Uranium-Thorium Bearing Minerals in Tranomaro, South-East Madagascar Frank Elliot Sahoa1, Naivo Rabesiranana1*, Raoelina Andriambololona1, Nicolas Finck2, Christian Marquardt2, Hörst Geckeis2 1Institut National des Sciences et Techniques Nucléaires (Madagascar-INSTN), Antananarivo, Madagascar 2Institute of Nuclear Waste and Disposal (INE), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, Germany Email: *
[email protected] Received September 20, 2013; revised October 21, 2013; accepted November 5, 2013 Copyright © 2013 Frank Elliot Sahoa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Li- cense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT Studies are undertaken to characterize the uranium and thorium minerals of south-east Madagascar. Seven selected uranothorianite bearing pyroxenites samples from old abandoned uranium quarries in Tranomaro, south Amboasary, Madagascar (46˚28'00"E, 24˚36'00"S) have been collected. To determine the mineral micro-structure, they were inves- tigated for qualitative identification of crystalline compounds by using X-ray powder diffraction analytical method (XRD). Results showed that the uranium and thorium compounds, as minor elements, were present in various crystal- line structures. Thorium, as thorianite, is present in a simple ThO2 cubic crystalline system, whereas the uranium com- ponent of the Tranomaro uranothorianite samples is oxide-based and is a mixture of complex oxidation states and crys- talline systems. Generally called uraninite, its oxide compounds are present in more than eight phases.