______________________________________________________________________________________ 2008 annual meeting – Spruce Pine Mining District: Little Switzerland, North <strong>Carolina</strong> ______________________________________________________________________________________ Warner, R., Meadows, J., Fleisher, C., Sojda, S., Crawford, B., Stone, P.A., Price, V., and Temples, T., 2004, Petrography and uranium mineralogy of SC DHEC well core, Jenkins Bridge Road near Simpsonville, South <strong>Carolina</strong>: <strong>Geological</strong> <strong>Society</strong> of America Abstracts with Programs, v. 36, p. 225. Wilson, W.F. and McKenzie, B.J., 1985, Some mineral collecting sites in North <strong>Carolina</strong>: Rocks and Minerals, v. 60, p. 84-93. FIGURE CAPTIONS Figure 1. Backscattered electron images of uraninites from Spruce Pine pegmatites. Scale is given by bars below each image. A) Relatively homogeneous uraninite from Deake mine. B) Higher magnification image showing small-scale heterogeneities in uraninite, Deer Park mine. Brighter are<strong>as</strong> have higher uranium. C) Broad-scale banding in uraninite from Pink mine. Darker area (bottom) yielded lower analysis totals and is more prone to damage from the electron beam. D) Compositional banding in uraninite from Goog Rock mine. Darker area (lower right) is Ca-rich; brighter are<strong>as</strong> have higher uranium. Figure 2. X-ray diffraction patterns of uraninite from Goog Rock mine (top) and <strong>Carolina</strong> Mineral Co. No. 20 mine (bottom). The scans show diffraction peaks with the background removed. Beneath are the peaks located from the scans and, below that, matching uraninite peaks from a data file. Figure 3. A) Backscattered electron image of inhomogeneous uraninite from Deake mine (bar gives scale). B) X-ray map of Ca distribution in same field of view. Note that brighter are<strong>as</strong> are higher in Ca (and also yield higher analysis totals). Figure 4. Ternary plot of A-site cations in samarskite-group minerals. Subdivision into samarskite-(Y), ishikawaite, and calciosamarskite is b<strong>as</strong>ed on relative dominance of (Y+REE), (U+Th), and Ca, respectively (Hanson and others, 1999). Open triangles, data from this study; filled star, samarskite-(Y) analysis reported by Allen (1877); open star, calciosamarskite analysis reported in Hanson and others (1999). Figure 5. Backscattered electron images of uranium-bearing niobate-tantalate minerals in Spruce Pine pegmatites. Scale is given by bars below each image. A) Sample from McKinney mine consisting of intergrown uranoan microlite (brightest ph<strong>as</strong>e), samarskite-(Y) (intermediate brightness), and fergusonite (dark ph<strong>as</strong>e). Note burn marks (from electron beam damage) in fergusonite (near center of image and toward right side above uranoan microlite). B) Fergusonite (darker, inhomogeneous ph<strong>as</strong>e on left side of grain) and plumbopyrochlore (bright, on right side of grain) from W. W. Wiseman mine. Tiny, very bright material included in fergusonite and in plumbopyrochlore is uraninite. Separate grain at lower right is samarskite-(Y). Figure 6. Ternary plot of B-site cations in pyrochlore-group minerals. Fields for betafite, pyrochlore, and microlite are b<strong>as</strong>ed on Hogarth (1977) cl<strong>as</strong>sification. Symbols: open triangles, uranoan microlite from this study; filled triangle, plumbopyrochlore from this study; open star, uranoan pyrochlore from Mitchell County (Allen, 1877; Frondel, 1958); plusses, betafite from Maw Bridge pegmatite, South <strong>Carolina</strong> (Warner and Fleisher, 2004). ______________________________________________________________________________________ Page 41 ______________________________________________________________________________________
Figure 1 Warner and others (2008) page 42