CLAYS, SEDIMENTS, URANIUM TRAP Sediment Clays ----------> trap uranium
Uranium has a positive charge vs clays negative
Clays attract the uranium electrostatically.
Clays also concentrate uranium.
The average Florida soil has about 2 pCi/g of radioactivity from both uranium and radium. A mineralized soil in an unmined area has about 10 pCi/g of radioactivity. A clay settling area has up to 40 pCi/g of radioactivity. [pCi/g (picocuries/gram), as explained in the segment explaining why phosphogypsum is stacked, is a measurement used to denote the amount of radioactivity per mass or volume of the material in question.]
At 40 pCi/g the clay is 20 times higher than average Florida soil and four times higher than mineralized soil, Source: Floridapoly education
That's soil not.....ore.
South America
has unusual elevated uranium in phosphate / potassium.
Clay is one of the most important industrial minerals that have been used to improve the quality of product and economize the production cost. Clay and their minerals, both in its natural and modified forms, have the ability to absorb various radioactive materials from aqueous solution, such as Uranium, Thorium and Caesium as discussed extensively...
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/UraniumVI-and-ThoriumIV-percentage-uptake-by-bentonite-at-pH-10-20-and-30-at_tbl1_341681720
PH assists uranium uptake in Clay
Phosphate Study in Argentina
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322577920_Phosphate_deposits_in_Argentina_State_of_the_art
Uranium = U238 U234 U235 ( most notable )
When uranium frations it will disassociate ( think water, uranyls )
So will it's smaller subsets -------> ( daughters ) nuclei and actins
The other day.....
i was wondering if uranium could reassemble.
Here's what i found.
After the initial fractionation, the isotopic system will follow the laws of radioactivity to restore
equilibrium between the parent and daughter nuclides at a rate determined by their respective
decay constants. Thus, the timing of precipitate formation is determined by measuring the extent
to which daughter product growth has restored the system to secular equilibrium (i.e., the extent
to which the activity ratio of the parent nuclide and its daughter product has returned to unity).
This dating system takes advantage of the dierences in solubility between uranium and thorium complexes in natural waters of surface environments: in oxic environments, uranium generally assumes its highest oxidation state (U6+) in the form of the highly soluble uranyl ion (UO2+2), whereas thorium generally is insoluble and immobile in most aqueous environments where pH >3, with some exceptions (Chabaux et al.,2003). Thus, in most surface conditions, Fuids are enriched in uranium and depleted in thorium, and this extreme fractionation is preserved when precipitants form from such waters.
Carbonates are the most widely utilized materials for U-Th dating due to their near ubiquity in continental waters. In addition, because UO2+ 2easily forms stable complexes with carbonate ions and is adsorbed onto, co-precipitated with, or structurally incorporated into carbonate mineral host phases
(Langmuir,1978;Reeder et al.,2000,2001;Kelly et al.,2003,2006)
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343710020_U-Th_dating_of_lake_sediments_Lessons_from_the_700_ka_sediment_
record_of_Lake_Junin_Peru
Takeaway ?
Uranium isotopes can fracture and.... reunite.
Uranium attracts to carbonates ( calcs )
Sediments = Clays
Calcs Carbonates = comprise Clays
Lagunas would host sediment clays beds.
Sediment clay beds concentrate uranium.
U238 oxidizes ( water's O2 value )
U235 is volatile = would react with water = convert to uranyl = and would want to stabalize
= Good odds the calcium in water would attrqct the U235
= Good odds aqueous phosphates ( green ) could bond with U235 ( aqueous )
= U235 still has weight ( mass ) sinks to bottom
= Calc carnotite created in cemented sedimentry beds
= Phosphate green sludge U235 forms in clay sediments
= Higher grades are seen in gravels
= Higher grades are also seen in green sludge ( photo )
Sands are very porus = weaker grades
Clay has retention attributes
SALARS / LAGUNA"S = could have layed down thick clay sediments over eons
many reports on uranium in clays
sad part.... most of the resesrch places focus on the porus clays - weak grades....lol
A - typical of uranium sector - tease.
Ivana's U shape deposit matches picos water tail.
Spanish report
Upper left image
2 meter photo
Highgrade lense is it ----> decayed hardrock or ores brought in from picos reconsolodating ?
Sands and maybe clays benieth.
Then sm pebbles begin.
Could suggest ----------> deeper depths might have a repeated sequence of lenses.
It was mentioned in a report....
The majority of uranium found in Amarillo was coffinite which emitted - beta.
What did i find online ?
Natural uranium consists of 99.283% by weight uranium-238 (half-life 4.468×109 years), 0.711% uranium-235 (half-life 7.04×108 years), and 0.005% uranium-234 (half-life 245,000 years). All three isotopes are alpha-emitters.
Yet if one digs a tad deeper....
Both uranium and depleted uranium, and their immediate decay products, emit alpha and beta particles and a small amount of gamma radiation Source: europa.eu
Evidence for the existence of a gamma-ray accompanying the alpha-decay of U-235 is presented. The energy of the gamma-ray, as determined by several independent absorption measurements, is 162 kev. Source: American physical Society
Uranium-235 decays to thorium-231 through alpha particle emission. Thorium-231 decays to protactinium-231 through beta minus decay. Protactinium-231 decays to actinium-227 through alpha particle emission. Actinium-227 decays to thorium-227 through beta minus decay.
Source: Home work study .com How does U235 decay.
Why address this subject ?
What if the coffinite ( most abundant in Amarillo ) was Thorium ?
Uranium's decay cycle ---------> first transition is to -----------> Thorium !
If the coffinire was reading beta ---------> could it be a Thorium ?
There's lot's of opinions online, research papers sometimes sound contraire.
Scratch the surface you'll only read generalities.
Dig deeper ---------> uranium is a very complex subject.
Perhaps not all is yet known.
Uranium has the highest oxide variety bond. 300+ species.
Bonds to all sorts of minerals.
I would say....
Loose rocks, Hardrock and SALAR sediment silt clay beds are important talking points.
Even ISOL's new drills are overtop a watershed path..... lol
Inorder for shareholders to see tangible value...
Loose rocks, Hardrock, Salar sediments / silt clays must be recognized.
Cheers.....
Atomic has at least done thier leg work with Nigera's Gov.
BSK / Argentina ?
So much more...
should've been done over the past 12 yrs.