Australia deposit information

There are only a few minerals where thorium occurs as a significant constituent. The commercially important ore is the golden-brown, lanthanide phosphate, monazite [13064-1 -8/, LnPO where Ln = Ce, La, or Nd, in which thorium is generally present in a 1—15% elemental composition (7,8). Monazite is widely distributed around the world. Some deposits are quite large. Beach sands from Australia and India contain monazite from which concentrates of lanthanides, titanium, zirconium, and thorium are produced (7). The Travancore deposits in India are the most famous, and have been perhaps one of the most significant sources of commercial thorium. Additional information on the occurrence of thorium in minerals can be found in the literature (7). A review of the mineralogy of thorium is also available (9). 

Unconformity-related deposits are found near principal unconformities. Examples include the ore bodies at Quff Lake, Key Lake, and Rabbit Lake in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, and in the Alligator Rivers area in northern Australia. Sandstone deposits are contained in rocks that were deposited under fluvial or marginal marine conditions. The host rocks nearly always contain pyrite and organic plant matter. The sediments are commonly associated with tuffs. Unoxidized deposits of this type consist of pitchblende and coffinite in arkasoic and quartzitic sandstones. Upon weathering, secondary minerals such as camotite, tuyamunite, and uranophane are formed. More information on these and other uranium deposit types is available (1). 

Initially an extensive literature search was conducted to identify key world oil shales, i.e., deposits of large size and/or of current interest to potential developers. The resulting information was used to select a few key world oil shales. Thirteen oil shale samples from eight different countries were studied. Samples were acquired from each of the following countries Australia, Brazil, Israel, Sweden, the United States, and Yugoslavia. Two samples were acquired from Morocco and five samples were acquired fr qj the People s Republic of China. Fischer, Ultimate, Rock-Eval, C Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR), and X-ray Diffraction Mineral analyses were performed on the samples to identify their compositional characteristics. 

Relatively little is known about many of the world s deposits of oil shale, and much exploratory drilling and analytical work need to be done. Early attempts to determine the total size of world oil shale resources were based on few facts, and estimates of the grade and quantity of many of these resources were speculative, at best. The situation today has not greatly improved, although much information has been published in the past decade or so, notably for deposits in Australia, Canada, Estonia, Israel, and the United States. Evaluation of world oil shale resources is especially difficult because of the wide variety of analytical units that are reported. The grade of a deposit is variously expressed in US. or Imperial gallons of shale... 

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