Sedimentary uranium in South Australia: A history of early exploration and discovery in the Lake Frome region

Abstract

The potential for sedimentary uranium in South Australia was substantively overlooked for more than 60 years following the discovery of the Radium Hill uranium deposit in 1906, despite local knowledge of, and several expert visits to sedimentary uranium deposits in the Colorado Plateau region of the United States during subsequent years. In the late 1960s, a combination of factors including the commercial opportunity for nuclear power generation and the removal of Government export controls on uranium, coupled with increasing demand for mineral commodities generally, changed the situation, and led the US based Kerr McGee group to take an interest in uranium in South Australia in 1967. Their exploration quickly revealed anomalous uranium in Cenozoic sediments. Soon after, South Australian geologist Brian Fitzpatrick visited the Wyoming sedimentary uranium region on behalf of the OTP group, which then quickly secured exploration acreage over the sedimentary region, adjacent to the long-known Mount Painter uranium deposits in South Australia. Within 18 months, the Beverley uranium resource was discovered and a new sedimentary uranium province was revealed. Further discoveries followed at Honeymoon in 1972, Gould's Dam in 1974 and Oban in 1982. Critical factors in these subsequent discoveries were the joint venture arrangements including up to four separate parties and the inspiration provided by Professor Eric Rudd (University of Adelaide). Close liaison by explorers with the Geological Survey of South Australia also provided regional mapping, regional stratigraphic drilling, experimental geophysics and spore-pollen dating.