Abstracts Earth and Environmental Sciences

Factors Controlling the Formation of Unconformity-related Uranium Deposits in Sedimentary Basins: Insights from Reactive Mass Transport Modeling

by Aghbelagh Yousef Beiraghdar

This thesis aims at investigating the formation and controlling factors of unconformityrelated uranium (URU) deposits through fluid flow and reactive mass transport modeling. The role of a graphite zone was first addressed using two different reducing mechanisms. In the first mechanism, uraninite precipitation involves methane as a reductant. In the second mechanism, oxygen is used for formulating the redox reaction. Results show that uraninite can precipitate below the unconformity and away from the graphite zone regardless of the reducing agent. However, methane leads to a higher grade in uranium mineralization. Advisors/Committee Members: Yang, Jianwen.