Dear Dilip: even 45 ppm is not enough for a mineable uranium deposit (the cut off grade I believe is around 500 ppm). Moreover if the U is locked-up in resistate minerals which are NOT uranium minerals, like zircon, allanite, monacite and apatite, it is very hard to extract from them, and it is not economically sound to do it. Perhaps the proportion of REE (La, Ce, etc. in the monacite and allanite could be high enough, you could try that. But 45 ppm U will only produce very nice radioactive haloes around those crystals, especially if they are included in biotite seen at the microscope under uncrossed polars... With regards. Sebastian. 

Dear Dr. Majumdar,

even if you consider this as a low-grade-large tonnage deposit it will not be feasible you should come around 800  ppm U and resources of  1000 to >  100000 t U . On the other hand the minerals you mentioned are not very much liked by the engineers due to their refractory behaviour.

Their U content is far below that of U black ore:

zircon ZrSiO4 1367 ppm U

monazite (Ce,La,Y,Th)PO4 820 ppm U

orthite (Ca,Fe)(REE, Al,Fe)3 Si3O12(OH) 180 ppm U

apatite Ca5 (PO4)3 (F,OH,Cl) 67 ppm U

You should deal with deposits like the so-called " intrusive U or (intramagmatic) deposits "

Low grade-large tonnage (e.g. Roessing 300 ppm U3O8) Valencia (Namibia), Goanikontes, Trekkopje (Namibia), Illimaussaq (Greenland), Bokan Mts.-Alaska (USA), Palabora, South Africa, Bingham, USA (byproduct of Cu production),

and Twin Butte (USA), Bancroft area (Canada).

If you handle it as a REE deposit the constraining parameters may not be very much different from that for U. It is the grade, the tonnage and the recoverability that count.

I hope it will give you some basic information to better deal with your target lithology

Best regards

H.G.Dill

I would definitely say no.

If this is the average content of uranium of these subalkaline granites,

then yes we can say that these granites show positive anomaly with reference to uranium.

They can act either as source or host rocks for uranium.

1) To act as source rocks:

As the uranium content is due to its concentration in accessory minerals, you have to see whether there is any kind of mineral alterations are there by which uranium becomes labile and comes in to solution, which later can get concentrated in suitable host rocks (mostly sedimentary units) with reductants to precipitate uranium bearing minerals.

2) To act as host rocks:

The rock should be altered-deformed, so that the system becomes prone to movement of mineralizing fluids and gets concentrated along weak planes within the same rock, over the period of time. 

Both this kind of deposits are common in Indian deposits where granites acts either as source or host rocks of uranium.

All the anomalies wont lead to deposits.

To become a deposit, the mineralization should be consistent over a considerable strike length and should be in extractable form, economically.

Uranium deposit :

A mass of naturally occurring mineral from which uranium could be exploited at present or in the future.

Deposits is a very technical term,. certain factors should be considered, the grade of the ore, tonnage, ore extraction, e.t.c

Resources of deposits:

small = 20 000 t U.

Ore grades (given as average of deposits):

low = 0.5% U.

45ppm U can only be regarded as an anomaly. REE, HSE,LILE are mostly associated with uranium enrichment at late stage differentiation. Uranium enrichment is elaveted in  rocks with higher alkalis/Al ratios.

Most uranium deposits related to partial melting of are low grade. The Rössing U deposit in Namibia is the most significant deposit related to partial melting processes Rossing : 2.289t in 2012, 100.000 t since 1976.

The best option is to search for sedimentary sequences that the sub-alkaline granites might be the source of the sediments. Fractures zones related to the along the area can serve as a good host for appreciable uranium as secondary mineralization.

I agree with the contributors above that your granites would be excellent source rocks. U could also be deposited in hydrothermal alteration zones (in veins) in fracture zones, especially in association with graphite.

If these sedimentary/metamorphic rocks are covered, then geophysical prospecting would identify graphitic conductors at depth which can be associated with U deposits. This last situation is what has happened in the Athabasca Basin which has about 35% of the world's known U deposits. The Basin is surrounded by granites with anomalous U concentrations.

Seawater naturally has a concentration of about 3 milligrams of uranium per cubic meter, and some people have become very excited about the vast amount of uranium in the ocean.

I am so thankful for your valued opinions. I do agree that the granite country acts as a potential contributor for the sedimentary and metamorphosed equivalents that are showing very high concentration of uranium. In fertile granites, mobilization effect is visible in texture of the accessory minerals, show evidences like pitted grain surface, irregular grain margins (embayed nature), metamict character of uranium bearing accessory minerals and a low Th/U ratio (