uranium deposits in southwestern wyoming

Re8 Desert area.--Located southeast, south, and southwest
of the schroeckingerite deposits at Lost Creek are the uraniumbearing
coal and carbonaceous shale deposits af the Red Desert
area. These deposits are also located near the central part af
the Great Divide Basin north of Wamsutter, but it is probable
that they also extend to the south as well. The outcrop pattern,
as is presently known, trends northwest over an area 24- miles
long and 12 miles wide.
The radioactive coal, which occurs in the Wasatch formation
of early Eocene age, is subbituminaus B in rank. The coal-bearing
sequence, which is approximately .700 feet thick in the area, is
principally composed of poorly consolidated fluviatile sandstones
and silty shales which interfinger with the lime-cemented sandstones
and low-grade all shale of the lacustrine Green River formotion
to the southwest. Overlying this section conformably
are the sands, clays, and shales of the Green River and Bridger
formations of Eocene age, which, in turn, are overlain with definite
unconformity by the pink and ash-gray tuffaceous sands of
the Browns Park formation (?) of Miocene (?) age. The latter
is present only adjacent to, and north of, the Cyclone Rim fault
zone. At one time, prior to erosion, this formation may have
extended over most of the Red Desert area.
The uranium in the coals is believed to occur as a disseminated
adsorbed constituent of carbon, and the stratigraphically
and topographically higher beds, in general, ore more radioactive
(Masursky & Pipiringos, 1952, p. 23). Further, the uranium

content within a coal bed is higher adjacent to an intercalated
permeable sandstone.
Preliminary reports (Masursky 6" Pipiringos, 1952, p. 23)
indicate that the reserves of beds over 11/2 feet thick consist of
350,000,000 tons of coal and 20,000 tons of uranium. Since
the thinner coal beds are among the most radioactive, this, together
with the carbonaceous shale and clay shale, indicate a
considerable additional reserve.
At the present time the deposits are not economic, but
should they become so, strip mining methods could be employed
since the beds are essentially horizontal and are overlain by
less than "70 feet of overburden.