Mineral Exploration Strategy
GeoTotal Group mineral exploration management consultants consultants can help you assess the prospectivity and explorability of your exploration project portfolio. We help you explore for economic mineral deposits in the right place, with the right people, and with the right technology.
MINERAL EXPLORATION STRATEGY: A CHAPTER IN UNCONFORMITY-RELATED URANIUM DEPOSITS (IAEA-TECDOC-1857)
Chapter Authored by Jim Marlatt, PhD, GeoTotal Group Ltd.
Chapter Introduction
This chapter focuses on the description of strategic aspects of uranium exploration for the discovery of the next generation of economic deposits. It includes an overview of the global distribution of economic uranium resources, a description of the exploration process, the identification of exploration risk factors, and an illustration of an approach for exploration in frontier environments.
Uranium exploration is a complex high-risk high-reward business activity focused on the discovery of economic uranium deposits. The exploration process involves many stakeholders who take on different roles to support the activities of exploration and mining companies. Stakeholders involved in the process include the IAEA, geological survey organizations, consultants, researchers, exploration service providers, and exploration company managers and workers.
Uranium exploration requires long time-frames and sustained funding to identify economic resources and to develop these resources into mines. Exploration companies invest in exploration after assessing a variety of factors including the prospectivity and explorability of the geological environments, and understanding potential social, environmental and economic risks associated with future mine development.
Prospectivity assessments are based upon models of uranium ore formation and involve the disciplines of geology, geochemistry, and geophysics. The goal is to identify the potential for the occurrence of economic uranium deposits within a specific geological environment.
The assessment of explorability focuses on identifying exploration methods that are suitable for the environment under evaluation. The goal is to identify approaches to exploration that will confirm the presence of uranium mineralization in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
Economic unconformity uranium deposits have been discovered in Australia and Canada. Other jurisdictions that are known to host Proterozoic sandstone basins and that are deemed to be prospective and explorable, could potentially host new deposits.
GeoTotal Group Ltd. Mineral Exploration Consultants +1.613.484.1890
James Marlatt, PhD, MBA, P.Eng.
jmarlatt@geototalgroup.com
+1-613-484-1890