Proposed Title 1: - Queen's University

CHAPTER 3
GENESIS OF MULTIFARIOUS URANIUM MINERALIZATION IN
THE BEAVERLODGE AREA, NORTHERN
SASKATCHEWAN, CANADA
Abstract
The Beaverlodge area in northwestern Saskatchewan, Canada, hosts numerous faultcontrolled
U deposits that are geochemically and structurally complex because of multiple
deformation, hydrothermal alteration and U mineralization events. Field and petrographic
studies combined with electron microprobe analysis, stable isotope geochemistry of H, C,
O, as well as geochronological data have identified up to six temporally distinct stages of
U mineralization. Early minor stages are hosted in cataclasite and veins at ca. 2.29 Ga and
in albitized granite in the Gunnar deposit between ca. 2.3 Ga and 1.9 Ga, which predate
the main stage of U mineralization as hydrothermal breccias that formed at ca. 1.85 Ga.
Later stages of U mineralization are related to minor veins at ca. 1.82 Ga linked to alkaline
mafic dikes associated with the Martin Lake Basin and to minor veins at ca. 1.62 Ga
corresponding to the timing of unconformity-type uranium mineralization in the
Athabasca Basin.
Early vein and cataclasite-type mineralization formed during late stages of the early
Paleoproterozoic Arrowsmith Orogen and represent the earliest recorded fluid events.
Stable isotope geochemistry of C and O of syn-ore calcite and syn-ore chlorite crystal
chemistry indicate that the early veins formed from fluids derived from retrograde
metamorphic processes at 310 o C. Granite-related metasomatic-type mineralization at
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