c G) Vl s: S 3· 0 ~ 0 Q) 0 0 0 n n ~ £. '-J r; o~· ~ :J Utah Geological & Mineral 8 urvey U .8. Bureau of Mines Contract HO 232069 Uranium-Vanadiulli. Report 18 September 26, 1974 UTAH GEOLOGICAL AND MINERAL SURVEY U. S. Bureau of Mines Contract HO 232069 Uranium-Vanadium Report 18 TEMPLE MOUNTAIN AREA, SAN RAFAEL DISTRICT The Temple Mountain area is a small but concentrated area of uranium mineralization in the San Rafael district. Most of the developed area fits into 2 or 3 square miles located near the reef on the southeast flank of the uplift. The area is centered in sections 34 and 35, T. 24 S., R. 11 E., S. L. B. M. Exposed strata range from the Triassic Moenkopi Formation to the Jurassic Navajo Sandstone. The are is principally in the basal sandstone members of the Triassic Chinle Formation, but other units have been affected by mineralization as well. Temple Mountain is an interesting structural area and illustrates collapse faulting. In addition the area is famous for urano-organic ore and the two phenomena appear related. In the vicinity of the deformation the rocks are strongly bleached and argillitization, dolomitization, hematitization, and alunitization can be demonstrated. Generally only the Monitor Butte or Moss Back Members of the Chinle are mineralized but near the collapse areas more than 1500 feet of stratigraphically vertical interval is affected. Ore occurs particularly along fractures within and surrounding the collapse and in the permeable zones within the Moss Back Member. Core drilling in the Temple Mountain collapse to depths of 700-800 feet encountered uranium ore in cherty conglomerate at the base of the Moenkopi and in brecciated Moenkopi and Chinle sediments. Calyx Bench is an elongate feature located southeast of the mountain itself (but still within the area) has most of its ore associated with the Chinle in asphaltic sandstone. A typical mine at the south end of Calyx Bench features asphaltite ore closely associated with barren asphaltite and other pyrobitumens, and partly liquid UTAH GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 1966 H o o 113" A 112· u T A H o Cl ~ z o N A 10 ~ 0 10 20 30 40 50 ",,01 .. '1 1 I I I I I SCALE IN Mll!S ! S '. ') ~.; !'l Shaft x ProRpect or Mine names (by coordinates) shown in figure ,t Camp Bird 7 (Wright workings) BI-6 Unkno\vn :! Ea~ s les Nest 7 Unknown " H;';'lioccio prospect 8 Vagabond (Denny' pro S pl~ct) ~.. i~~l~1erol 9 Unknown '{ oung prospect Unknown BII-I North Mesa 10 2 1Inrchbank incline Camp Bird 12 group (ICSouth 3 FleweHing inclino workings")-l\{ountain King 4 Ha ker i neline and Mountain King 1, 2, and 5 Calyx (AEC) 6 3 claims 6 f)i 13bck Beauty 7 5 8 4 -1 Vanadium King 7 9 10 ,., 4 10 9 6 11 3 5 12 Unknown 13 North Mesa 9 (Camp Bird 14) 7 3 . 25} "1\1-d:Il I . " '1: 1 Camp Bird 13 1f l ' 1 C e war ongs 5 U Calyx (AEC) 1 7 Lopez incline Vanadium King 3 1, portal 2}H.ex mine ("North workings") 3 1, portal 1 . Calyx (AEC) 8 11 12 petro1iferous material. The ore contains much selenium. The host rock is 90 to 100 feet thick and composed of coarse chert and quartzite pebble conglomerate occurring as lenses 2 to 10 feet thick in lenticular mudstone and medium to fine· grained sandstone. The are is irregularly bedded, 100 to 1000 feet in length, 10 to 50 feet wide and 1 to 8 feet thick. The ore is parallel and oriented northwesterly in sympathy with sedimentary trends. Some of the ore bodies appeal elongate to joint trends. Minerals include uraniferous asphaltite, uraninite in asphaltite, metatorbernite, zeunerite, carnotite, tyuyamunite, uvanite, rauvite, corvusite, metahewettite, pintaaoite, pascoite, pyrite, brochantite, sphalerite, galena, and erythrite. Presently all mines are shut down and most of the easy ore is mined out. Thirty-two mines are reported upon and 10 have some reserve. Ore grade shipped has averaged near 0.25%. About 300,000 tons of ore have been mined. 01371 Baker Incline 01395 Vagabond mine 01372 Ca lyx 1 01396* Vanadium King 1 01373 Calyx 2, 2 1/2 01397* Vanadium King 3 01374 Ca lyx 4 01398 Vanadium King 4 01375* Calyx 5, 5 1/2 01399 Vanadium King 5 01376 Calyx 6 01400* Vanadium King 6 01377 Calyx 3 01401 Vanadium King 7 01378 Calyx 10 01403 Young Prospect 01379 .. Calyx 12 01404 Calyx 9 01380* Calyx 8 01381 Calyx 11 01382* Camp Bird 7 01383* Camp Bird 12 Group 01385 Eagle Nest 01386* Flat Top Mine 01387 Flewelling Incline 01388* Fumero1e 01389 Lopez Incline 01390* Marchbank Incline 01391 Migliaccio 01392 North Mesa 1, 2, &5 01393 North Mesa 7 01394 North Mesa 9, 10 Temple Mountain area, San Rafae 1 Di s tri ct reserves Probability Rate % Tons ---Pounds--.---- U308 90 ( Measured) 0. 17 3,925 13,800 75 (Better Indicated) 0.20 500 2,000 - 50 (Indicated) 0.18 14,000 50,500 25 (Better Inferred) 0.20 5,500 22,000 10 ( Inferred) 0.20 5,000 20,000 Grand Total 0.20 28,925 108,300 Some of the mines were reported on directly as a result of visits by our consultant. Other information was derived from the following sources: Atomic Energy Commission records, 1973 and 1974 Atomic Energy Commission, 1959, Guidebook to uranium deposits of western United States: Grand Junction, Colorado, p. 2-73 to 2-80. Emery County courthouse, records, 1974. Hawley, C. C., Wyant, D. G. and Brooks, D. B., 1965, Geology and uranium deposits of the Temple Mountain District, Emery County, Utah: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 1192, 154 p. Kelley, D. R. and Kerr, P. F., 1957, Clay alteration and are, Temple ~1ountain, Utah: G.S.A. Bull. V. 68, p. 1101-1116. 1958, Urano-organic ore at Temple Mountain, Utah: ----------~~~~~~~G.S.A. Bull. V. 69, p. 701-756. Kerr, P. F., Kelley, D. R., Keys, W. S., Bodine, M. L\1. Jr., 1955, Collapse features, Temple Mountain uranium area, Utah: U. S. Atomic Energy Comm. RME 3110 ( pt. 3), 1 38p . Utah State Tax Commission records, 1973. .