CN115598727A

CN115598727A - Method for determining hot uranium ore scenic spot

Info

Publication number: CN115598727A
Application number: CN202211276131.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李子颖; 聂江涛; 郭建; 刘军港; 林锦荣; 秦明宽; 范洪海; 蔡煜琦; 唐湘生; 张玉燕; 黄宏业; 朱鹏飞; 刘文泉; 孙晔; 张杰林; 田明明; 黄志新; 刘鑫杨; 何升; 张明林
Original assignee: Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology
Current assignee: Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology
Priority date: 2022-10-19
Filing date: 2022-10-19
Publication date: 2023-01-13
Also published as: WO2024083169A1

Abstract

The application relates to a method for analyzing a geologic body by means of physical and chemical properties of the geologic body, in particular to a method for determining a hydrothermal uranium ore prospect, which comprises the following steps: determining a first area in the survey area, wherein the first area is an area distributed with abnormal areas corresponding to at least one element group; determining a second area in the exploration area, wherein the second area is an area where the mineralizing silicon vein is located; determining a third area in the investigation region, wherein the third area is an area in which the uranium content in the surface rock in the investigation region is greater than a preset value and the markers in the surface rock have rigid deformation and plastic deformation at the same time; determining a keatite prospect based on one or more of the first zone, the second zone, and the third zone.

Description

Method for determining hot uranium ore scenic spot

Technical Field

The application relates to a method for analyzing a geologic body by means of physical and chemical properties of the geologic body, in particular to a method for determining a hydrothermal uranium ore scenic region.

Background

The uranium mine exploration determination method has the advantages that the determination of the uranium mine prospect is an important step in uranium mine exploration, and if the prospect can be accurately and comprehensively determined, the ore finding efficiency can be improved, and ore mistake and ore leakage are avoided. The methods provided in the related art for determining the prospect area of a keatite uranium mine are often not accurate and comprehensive enough.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present application is made to provide a method of determining a keatite prospect that overcomes or at least partially solves the above-mentioned problems.

An embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a hydrothermal uranium mine prospect, including: determining a first area in an investigation region, wherein the first area is an area distributed with abnormal areas corresponding to at least one element group, the element group comprises a first element group, a second element group, a third element group and a fourth element group, the first element group comprises uranium and thorium, the second element group comprises one or more same-genus incompatible elements of uranium, the third element group comprises one or more thiophilic elements, the fourth element group comprises one or more volatile elements, the abnormal areas are areas with the content of at least one element in the element group higher than a corresponding abnormal threshold value, and the abnormal threshold value is determined based on the content distribution condition of the corresponding element in the investigation region; determining a second area in the exploration area, wherein the second area is an area where the mineralizing silicon veins are located; determining a third area in the exploration area, wherein the third area is an area in which the uranium content in the surface rock in the exploration area is larger than a preset value and the markers in the surface rock have rigid deformation and plastic deformation at the same time; determining a keatite prospect based on one or more of the first zone, the second zone, and the third zone.

According to the method for determining the hydrothermal uranium ore scenic spot, the hydrothermal uranium ore scenic spot can be determined more accurately and comprehensively.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a flow chart of a method of determining a hot uranium mine prospect according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a schematic representation of a marker structure for primary deformation strength according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic representation of a marker structure for secondary deformation strength according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a marker structure schematic diagram of three-level deformation strength according to an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present application more clear, the technical solutions of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings of the embodiments of the present application. It should be apparent that the described embodiment is one embodiment of the present application, and not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the described embodiments of the application without any inventive step, are within the scope of protection of the application.

It is to be noted that, unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used herein shall have the ordinary meaning as understood by those of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs. If the description "first", "second", etc. is referred to throughout, the description of "first", "second", etc. is used only for distinguishing similar objects, and is not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance, order or number of technical features indicated, it being understood that the data described in "first", "second", etc. may be interchanged where appropriate. If "and/or" is presented throughout, it is meant to include three juxtapositions, exemplified by "A and/or B" and including either scheme A, or scheme B, or schemes in which both A and B are satisfied.

An embodiment of the present application provides a method for determining a hydrothermal uranium ore prospect, with reference to fig. 1, including:

step S102: a first region in the survey area is determined.

Step S104: a second region in the survey area is determined.

Step S106: a third region in the survey area is determined.

Step S108: determining a keatite prospect area in the survey area based on one or more of the first area, the second area, and the third area.

In this embodiment, the exploration area may be an area selected by a person skilled in the art according to any suitable method, where a hydrothermal uranium mine exploration needs to be performed, and the exploration area may have a certain geological work basis, for example, hydrothermal uranium ore bodies that have been found may exist in the exploration area.

The first region in step S102 is a region where abnormal regions corresponding to at least one element group are distributed, where the distribution of the uranium ore may cause content of some indication elements to be abnormal, and the abnormal regions of the elements may form an overlapping field, where the first region determined in this application is a region where the abnormal regions of the elements are distributed, and the first region may indicate existence of the uranium ore to some extent.

In order to be able to determine the first area more accurately, the present application proposes four different element groups, each element group comprising one or more elements, the elements in the same element group being of the same or similar nature, but the nature is different between the element groups of different groups. The element groups can be enriched in the mineralization fluid, and due to different properties of the element groups, the surface growth effect of the uranium ores after formation does not generally affect all the element groups, so that the element content conditions in the element groups are combined to determine the first area with higher accuracy.

The first element group is an mineralizing element group, which mainly includes uranium, which is a characteristic enrichment element in the formation of keatite uranium ores. In some embodiments, the first element group may include only uranium. In some embodiments, the first element group may also include thorium, and uranium, which have some correlation and thus may also be considered as a marker enrichment element in the keatite formation process.

The second element group comprises one or more compatible elements of the mineralizing elements (mainly uranium and thorium), and the incompatible elements refer to some trace elements which tend to be enriched in a liquid phase in the process of crystallizing minerals of magma or hydrothermal fluid, and because the concentration of the trace elements is low, independent minerals cannot be formed, and the trace elements are limited by ionic radius, charge and combination bonds, are difficult to enter the crystal structure of the rock-making minerals and are relatively enriched in residual magma or hydrothermal fluid. The same-genus incompatible elements of uranium refer to incompatible elements enriched along with uranium in an ore-forming process, and common same-genus incompatible elements of uranium can include, but are not limited to, lithium, cesium, rubidium, niobium and the like.

The third element group includes one or more thiophilic elements, common ones that may include, but are not limited to, molybdenum, copper, lead, zinc, bismuth, antimony, etc., which react to the reducing characteristics of the mineralization fluid and which will also co-enrich with uranium during mineralization.

The fourth element group comprises one or more volatile elements, wherein the volatile elements refer to easily volatile components (which are easily volatilized by heating under the condition of isolating air) contained in the rock pulp, the volatile content in the rock pulp has a certain influence on the crystallization effect and the mineralization effect of the rock pulp, and common volatile elements can comprise but are not limited to fluorine, sulfur and the like.

The properties of each of the four element groups are described above specifically, and some elements meeting the properties are listed, in the process of implementation, a person skilled in the art may determine the elements specifically included in each element group according to the actual situation in the survey area, for example, may select from the listed elements by referring to the existing physical and chemical results, survey data, and geological data in the survey area, or select from other elements meeting the properties described above, and at the same time, a person skilled in the art may determine the number of elements included in each element group specifically from the viewpoints of survey efficiency, survey cost, accuracy requirement, and the like, which is not limited in this application.

The abnormal region refers to a region in which the content of at least one element in a corresponding element group is higher than a corresponding abnormal threshold, specifically, if the content of at least one element in an element group is higher than the abnormal threshold corresponding to the element in a slice region, the slice region may be considered as the abnormal region corresponding to the element group, the abnormal threshold here may be determined based on the content distribution of the element in the survey region, a specific determination method may refer to an element abnormal value determination method of the related art, a method for determining an abnormal threshold used in some embodiments will also be specifically described in the related part below, and details are not repeated here.

In step S104, a second region is determined, and the second region is a region in which the mineralizing silica is distributed. The distribution of the keatite uranium ores has close relevance with the siliceous veins, the spatial distribution range of keatite bodies is small, but the distribution range of the keatite ore-forming-related siliceous veins is often times or even tens of times of the scale of the keatite bodies.

In step S108, a third region needs to be determined, where the uranium content in the surface rock is greater than a preset value, and a marker in the surface rock has a rigid deformation and a plastic deformation at the same time, where the marker includes quartz, feldspar, mica, and the like.

The deformation characteristics of the marker are derivative phenomena of a macroscopic structure, and the deformation characteristics can not only reveal the macroscopic structure rock control and ore control conditions, but also reveal the mineralization and diagenesis mechanisms of uranium element such as activation, migration, aggregation and the like.

In particular, the present application proposes that the rigid deformation occurring in the marker is a deformation occurring under stress, which can reveal from a microscopic perspective the presence of a fracture structure thereat, and that the rigid deformation may include a deformation of the structure of the marker occurring under stress, such as cracking, chipping, or the like. The plastic deformation of the marker is the deformation under the transformation of the hot fluid based on the rigid deformation, and can reveal the activity of the hot fluid from the microscopic perspective, and can comprise the light absorption change, the structure change, the new structure occurrence and the like of the marker.

If both rigid and plastic deformation of the marker in the surface rock occur, it means that fracture formation deformation and magma activity exist there and hydrothermal fluid development exists, which is favorable for keatite mineralization, while if only rigid deformation occurs in the marker, it means that although fracture formation deformation exists here, magma and hydrothermal fluid are not developed, which is unfavorable for keatite mineralization.

It is understood that the first, second and third regions determined above are each capable of indicating the distribution of the keatite, and the three regions each indicate the distribution of the keatite from a different perspective, and therefore, in step S108, the keatite prospect may be determined based on one or more of the first, second and third regions, i.e., the three regions are combined to determine the keatite prospect, thereby ensuring accuracy and comprehensiveness in determining the keatite prospect.

In some embodiments, an area in which at least one of the first area, the second area, and the third area is present may be determined as a keatite prospect area, i.e., a union of the three areas is determined as a keatite prospect area, which will make the determined keatite prospect area more comprehensive. In some embodiments, the overlapping area of the first area, the second area, and the third area may be determined as a keatite uranium mine prospect, i.e., the intersection of the three areas is determined as a keatite uranium mine prospect, which will make the determined keatite uranium mine prospect more accurate.

Several methods that can be used to determine the first region are described in detail below.

In some embodiments, the anomaly region corresponding to each element group may be first determined separately in the survey region. The technical personnel in the field can set sampling points in the exploration area for sampling, and analyze the element content of the acquired samples to determine the content distribution condition of each element in the exploration area, thereby determining the abnormal area corresponding to each element group. The person skilled in the art can analyze the element content of the collected sample with reference to relevant rock chemical analysis criteria, and can select different analysis methods for different elements, for example, for trace elements, such as elements in the second element group, plasma mass spectrometry can be used for determination, and for major elements, such as some thiophilic elements in the third element group, X-fluorescence spectroscopy can be used for determination, without limitation.

The corresponding anomaly region for each element group may be determined by means of the element content distribution map, for example, if there is only one element in an element group, the anomaly region in the element content distribution map may be directly used as the anomaly region for the element group. If multiple elements are contained in an element group, the content distribution maps of these elements may be superimposed to obtain an abnormal region of the element group. By way of example, in performing the superimposition of the content distribution maps, for the sake of identification convenience, one element may be selected as the main element, whose content is shown in gray color blocks, while the other elements may be shown using contours of different colors, and may only show the contours corresponding to their anomaly thresholds. And determining the abnormal area corresponding to the element group by the area where the gray color block is located and the area encircled by the contour line of each element.

In some other embodiments, a person skilled in the art may also determine the abnormal region by performing a statistical analysis on the obtained element content in other ways, which is not limited in this respect.

After the abnormal regions corresponding to the element groups are determined, the first region can be determined according to the distribution conditions of the abnormal regions. Since the abnormal region in the present application indicates that the content of at least one element in one element group in the region is higher than the preset value, if an abnormal region corresponding to one element group exists in one region, the region can be determined as the first region.

In some embodiments, the boundary of the abnormal region in the region may be directly determined as the boundary of the first region, and in some other embodiments, a certain buffer region may also be disposed outside the boundary of the abnormal region in the region, and the boundary of the first region may be determined based on the boundary of the buffer region.

In some embodiments, if there are multiple abnormal regions corresponding to element groups distributed in a region in an overlapping manner, the boundary of the first region may be determined collectively based on the boundaries of the abnormal regions, for example, so that the first region at least completely covers the abnormal regions, or at least completely covers the regions where the abnormal regions overlap with each other.

The method provided by the embodiment of the application provides four element groups capable of indicating the distribution of the hydrothermal uranium ore field, and the first area is determined based on the abnormal areas of the element groups, so that the influence of surface generation after formation of the hydrothermal uranium ore on the migration of the active elements can be overcome, and the determined first area is more accurate.

In some embodiments, as described above, there may be a known keatite body in the survey area, and therefore, before the first area is determined in the survey area based on the distribution of the abnormal area, the spatial relationship between the abnormal area and the known keatite body in the survey area may be determined, so that the accuracy of the determined first area can be further ensured.

It can be understood that if there is a spatial relationship between the distribution of the abnormal regions and the known keatite body that is clearly correlated, the determined abnormal regions have a clear indication meaning for the distribution of the keatite body, and the determination of the first region in the unknown regions according to the abnormal regions can have a higher accuracy, and if there is no spatial relationship between the distribution of the abnormal regions and the known keatite body, or there is no spatial relationship between the abnormal regions corresponding to the partial element groups and the known keatite body, it may indicate that the abnormal regions corresponding to the element groups are difficult to effectively indicate the distribution of the keatite body, and it may be necessary to adjust the elements included in the element groups, or to exclude the element groups.

In some embodiments, after determining the first region, a rank of the first region may be further determined based on the number of the abnormal regions distributed in the first region in an overlapping manner, the rank characterizing a mining probability in the first region.

Determining the grade of the first area helps to better guide the next exploration work, and understandably, the more the number of the abnormal areas distributed in the first area is determined, the more the enriched element group types are in the first area, which in turn means that the first area has higher ore containing probability compared with other first areas distributed with only a small number of abnormal areas, and the first area can be preferentially developed in the subsequent exploration work.

In some embodiments, the first region may be divided into four levels from top to bottom based on the ore-bearing probability. If the abnormal areas corresponding to the four element groups are distributed in the first area in an overlapping mode, the first area can be considered as a first level, and the ore containing probability is highest. If there are any three abnormal regions corresponding to element groups distributed in an overlapping manner, the first region can be regarded as two levels. If there are two abnormal regions corresponding to any two element groups, the first region can be considered as having three levels. Only one abnormal area corresponding to the element group is distributed, so that the first area can be considered as four levels, and the ore-containing probability is lowest.

In some other embodiments, a person skilled in the art may further combine a specific kind of an element group corresponding to an abnormal region in the first region to further divide the level of the first region, and it may be understood that, although four element groups may indicate distribution of the keatite, there may be a difference between indication effects of different element groups, if two abnormal regions corresponding to two element groups are distributed in some two first regions, the levels of the two first regions may be further divided based on the specific kind of the element group, and the person skilled in the art may select the first region according to an actual situation, which is not described herein again.

In some embodiments, the elements specifically included in the four elements may be determined based on existing geological data in the survey area, as described above. In particular, a plurality of element groups may be determined based on element group characteristics in the survey area. The element group characteristics refer to content distribution characteristics of each element in the investigation region, correlation among contents of each element and the like. The determination of various element groups based on the element group characteristics can eliminate some elements without obvious enrichment characteristics in advance, and the efficiency is improved.

The element distribution characteristics and the like in the survey area can be preliminarily obtained by means of the geochemical data and the like in the survey area, and then the elements included in each element group are determined. In some embodiments, if there is a known keatite body in the survey area, the elements included in the element group may be specifically determined for the element group characteristics of the location of the keatite body.

In some embodiments, as described above, the abnormal region corresponding to each element group may be determined by sampling and element content analysis, and specifically, a plurality of sampling points may be set in the survey area, and a sample at each sampling point is collected for element content analysis, so as to determine the content distribution of the elements in the element group in the survey area. Next, an anomaly threshold corresponding to each element may be determined based on the content distribution of each element in the survey area, and an anomaly area corresponding to each element group may be determined based on the distribution of each element in the survey area and the anomaly threshold corresponding to each element.

In some embodiments, sampling points may be set in the survey area in a grid-like manner, and setting sampling points in the grid-like manner can ensure the comprehensiveness of sampling and facilitate subsequent analysis of the obtained element content.

As an example, sampling points may be set at a grid density of 100m × 100m, sampling may be performed at the sampling points in a borehole manner, and a borehole depth may be set to 10-20m. In some embodiments, to ensure the accuracy of the sampling points, a sampling point location map of the survey area may be first established, and then the position of each sampling point may be calibrated by means of a handheld GPS detection device or the like. In some embodiments, in order to ensure that the collected sample can obtain more accurate data, care needs to be taken to avoid collapsed objects, wind-borne objects, plant roots, and the like during sampling, and to avoid collecting samples that are significantly affected by activities of humans, animals, and the like.

In some embodiments, in setting the sampling points, an altered zone in the survey area may be first determined, and then the sampling points may be set in the altered zone. The alteration zone herein may refer to a zone where there are alterations such as alkali substitution, silicidation, carbonation, etc., and the distribution of these alterations reflects the activity range of hydrothermal fluid to some extent.

The erosion zone in the investigation area can be determined through a field investigation form, or the erosion zone can be determined based on geological drawings in the investigation area, and then sampling points are set for the erosion zones, so that the set sampling points can completely cover the range of the erosion zone. For the section where no obvious surrounding rock alteration is found in the exploration area, the distribution possibility of the hydrothermal uranium ore bodies is low, and the sampling points can be set without or in a relatively sparse mode, so that the sampling efficiency is improved.

In some embodiments, in setting sampling points, a known hydrothermal uranium deposit in an exploration area may be first determined, and the sampling points are set in a relatively dense manner in the area where the hydrothermal uranium deposit is distributed. As an example, the sampling points may be set at a grid density of 100m × 100m in the survey area, and further the grid density of the sampling points in the area where the keatite deposit is distributed may be increased to 20m × 20m to 50m × 50m.

In such an embodiment, the element content data at the known distribution region of the keatite deposit is obtained more by arranging the sampling points in a relatively dense manner in the region of the distribution of the keatite deposit, which on the one hand helps to determine the spatial relationship between the anomaly region and the known keatite deposit and on the other hand also helps to calculate the anomaly threshold value corresponding to each element more accurately.

In some embodiments, the anomaly threshold corresponding to each element may be determined based on, in particular, an arithmetic mean and a standard deviation of the content of each element. As an example, the arithmetic mean value Xo may be obtained by gradually rejecting the mean value plus or minus 3 times the standard deviation, and then obtaining the standard deviation So after gradual rejection, and the anomaly threshold T = Xo ± 2So. The influence of the content of elements which obviously deviate from the normal value can be eliminated by a gradual elimination method, so that the calculated abnormal threshold value is more accurate. In some other embodiments, a person skilled in the art may select other suitable ways to calculate the anomaly threshold, which only needs to accurately reflect the enrichment characteristics of each element, and this is not limited.

Several methods for determining the second region will be described in detail below.

In some embodiments, a siliceous pulse development zone in the survey area may be first determined, and then an mineralizing siliceous pulse in the siliceous pulse development zone is identified, and the area in which the mineralizing siliceous pulse is located is determined as the second area.

The emphasis in this embodiment is on the identification of the mineralizing siliceous veins, and specifically, when the mineralizing siliceous veins are identified, a plurality of samples can be collected in the siliceous vein development area, and the element content of the samples can be determined, so as to determine the uranium content and uranium-related elements of the siliceous vein samples.

The method is characterized in that the silicon vein has element content related to uranium content, and the mineralized silicon vein is generally enriched with trace elements such as tungsten, lead, bismuth, cadmium, antimony, molybdenum, copper, beryllium, vanadium, zinc, barium, cobalt, nickel, chromium and the like, and the content of the trace elements has strong correlation with the content of the uranium, so that the trace elements can be used as the identification criterion of the mineralized silicon vein.

If the uranium content of the siliceous vein sample is determined to be greater than the second preset value, and the uranium related elements comprise one or more of the elements involved in the above identification criteria, the siliceous vein at the position of the siliceous vein sample can be determined to be an mineralization siliceous vein. The second preset value here can be determined by those skilled in the art according to practical situations, and as an example, the second preset value can be 20 × 10 ^-6 。

After the content of the elements is determined, the correlation coefficient between each element and the uranium element is respectively determined by means of correlation analysis commonly used in the field, and the element with the correlation coefficient larger than a first preset value is determined as the uranium related element, wherein the first preset value can be determined by a person skilled in the art according to actual conditions, and only the element with relatively good correlation between the siliceous veins and the uranium can be effectively identified.

In some embodiments, in separately determining the element content of each silicon vein sample, uranium content analysis and trace element content analysis may be performed on each silicon vein sample separately to determine the uranium content and the content of each trace element in each silicon vein sample.

As described above, the elements involved in the identification criteria used in the present application are all trace elements, and for this reason, in the process of analyzing the element content, only the uranium content and the trace element content can be analyzed, and the analysis of the major element is not needed, so that the identification efficiency is improved. The trace elements for which the element content analysis is directed may include only the trace elements involved in the above-mentioned identification criteria, or may include trace elements other than the above-mentioned trace elements, without limitation.

In some embodiments, as described above, a correlation coefficient between the content of each trace element and the uranium content may be determined separately, and then a trace element having a correlation coefficient higher than a first preset value may be determined as a uranium-related element.

In some embodiments, the trace element content of each silicon vein sample may be further determined. It is also proposed that, in addition to enriching the abovementioned uranium-related trace elements, the mineralised siliceous vein generally also has a significantly higher content of trace elements than a normal non-mineralised siliceous vein. Therefore, the specific content of the trace elements can also be used as a recognition criterion of the mineralizing siliceous veins, and the trace elements can comprise the uranium related elements and can also comprise other trace elements.

Specifically, when the mineralizing silicon vein is identified based on the element content and the uranium related elements, if it is determined that the uranium content in the silicon vein sample is higher than a second preset value and the trace element content is higher than the second preset value, and the uranium related elements comprise at least one of tungsten, lead, bismuth, cadmium, antimony, molybdenum, copper, beryllium, vanadium, zinc, barium, cobalt, nickel and chromium, the silicon vein in the silicon vein development area can be identified as the mineralizing silicon vein.

The second predetermined value here can be determined on the basis of a background value of the content of the trace elements in the siliceous vein, which background value can be determined by a person skilled in the art on the basis of empirical values or relevant geological data, or alternatively, non-mineralizing siliceous veins can be collected in the region, which background value is determined on the basis of the content of the trace elements in the non-mineralizing siliceous veins.

In some embodiments, when a plurality of silicon pulse samples are collected in the silicon pulse development area, the color, type, shape and period of the silicon pulse in the silicon pulse development area can be firstly determined, and then at least one silicon pulse sample is collected at each color, each type, each shape and each period of the silicon pulse so as to ensure the comprehensiveness of the collected silicon pulse samples and further improve the identification accuracy.

Further, the application also provides that the quartz vein types in the mineral silicon veins are red microcrystalline quartz veins, red-brown microcrystalline quartz veins, white comb-shaped quartz veins and gray quartz veins, and the quartz vein types can also be used as a recognition criterion of the mineral silicon veins.

Based on this, in some embodiments, the quartz vein type in each silicon vein sample can be determined separately, and if the quartz vein type in the silicon vein sample is determined to include at least one of red microcrystalline quartz veins, red-brown microcrystalline quartz veins, white comb-shaped quartz veins, and gray quartz veins, the silicon vein at the position where the silicon vein sample is located can be identified as an mineralizing silicon vein.

The microcrystalline quartz vein is a quartz vein with a crystal grain size of 0.01-0.05mm, the reddish-brown microcrystalline quartz vein is also often described in the field as a porcine liver microcrystalline quartz vein, and the gray quartz white is also often described in the field as a smoke-gray quartz vein, and a person skilled in the art can identify the type of the quartz vein according to related identification standards, and the description is omitted here.

It should be noted that in some embodiments, the quartz vein type may also be used alone as the identification criteria of the mineralised vein, without being used with the uranium related elements described above.

In some embodiments, determining a region of siliceous pulse development in the survey area may comprise: determining an alteration area in the survey area; the area in the altered area where the siliceous veins develop is defined as the siliceous vein-developing area. In this embodiment, the alteration area in the investigation region may be determined according to the alteration condition of the surrounding rock in the investigation region, and then the silicon vein development region may be determined from the alteration area, thereby improving the efficiency of determining the second region.

In some embodiments, determining the siliceous pulse development zone further comprises: determining the amount of radioactivity in the altered region; and determining the area in the alteration area, in which the siliceous veins develop and at least part of the siliceous veins have radioactivity value higher than the fourth preset value, as the siliceous vein development area.

It will be appreciated that outliers in the radioactive content can indicate to some extent the distribution of uranium. For this reason, in the present embodiment, the radioactivity content of the siliceous vein is determined in the process of determining the siliceous vein developmental region, and a region in which at least part of the siliceous vein has a radioactivity value higher than the fourth preset value is determined as the siliceous vein developmental region, so that it is more likely that mineralised siliceous veins develop in the identified siliceous vein developmental region, and the efficiency of determining the second region can be improved. The fourth preset value here may be set with reference to a radioactive anomaly criterion in the related art in the field, or may be set based on a radioactive background value in the survey area, which is not limited thereto.

Several methods for determining the third region will be described in detail below.

In some embodiments, in determining the third region, surface samples in the survey area may be collected and the uranium content of the surface samples and the deformation characteristics of the markers in the surface samples determined. The marker may include at least one of quartz, feldspar and mica, and if it is determined that the uranium content in the surface sample is greater than the preset value and that rigid deformation and plastic deformation exist in the marker in the surface sample, the area where the surface sample is located may be determined as the third area.

In particular, bedrock at a location near the surface of the earth in the survey area may be collected as a surface sample. After the surface sample is collected, the collected surface sample can be divided into two parts, one part is subjected to an elemental analysis test to determine the uranium content, and the other part is ground into a polished sheet sample to determine the deformation characteristics of the marker through microscopic observation.

In some embodiments, determining deformation characteristics of markers in a surface sample may include: observing the structure and/or light absorption of the marker in the surface sample under a microscope; deformation characteristics of the markers are determined based on the structure and/or absorbance of the markers in the surface sample.

If the structural fracture of the marker in the surface sample is determined, the rigid deformation of the marker in the surface sample can be determined.

The disruption of the structure that occurs in different types of markers may vary, for example, in the case of quartz and feldspar, it may be a net-like disruption, a micro-fracture, a fragmented structure, a speckled structure. In the case of mica, the structural fracture may be microscopic fracture, a cracked structure, a broken-spot structure, and the network fracture is less likely to occur. The disruption of the above structure can be identified under a microscope by those skilled in the art according to experience or related standards in the art, and the detailed identification method is not described herein.

In some embodiments, if it is determined that an absorbance change occurs in a marker in a surface sample, it is determined that there may be plastic deformation of the marker in the surface sample, and the indication of the absorbance change may include: band extinction, wave extinction and fan extinction. The above three extinction methods can be identified by those skilled in the art according to experience or related standards in the field, and the detailed identification method is not described herein.

The change in absorbance that occurs in different types of markers may be different, wavy extinction may occur in quartz, ribbon extinction, fanning extinction, and wavy extinction occurs in feldspar and mica in many cases.

In some embodiments, in addition to determining the presence of plastic deformation by virtue of a change in light absorption, the presence of plastic deformation may be determined based on the presence of some landmark structures in the markers, which may be present in different types of markers.

For quartz, the signature structure may include dynamic recrystallization, tensile cord, rotating chip system, pressure shadow, S-C texture, sub-grain, ribbon structure, stress creep texture. Thus, if it is determined that at least one of the above structures is present in the quartz, it can be determined that there is plastic deformation of the marker in the surface sample.

The dynamic recrystallization is carried out simultaneously with the deformation. Dynamic weights may be produced by deformation of minerals above 0.5Tm (Tm is the melting point temperature), or during creep to a certain critical stress and slower strain rate.

The pressure shadow is that when the rock occurs, because the strength, hardness, or fragments and the like contained in the rock have obvious difference with the energy dryness of the rock matrix, low stress intervals are formed at two sides along the stretching direction of the rock, and the low stress intervals are filled by crystal fibers secreted by the same structure to form the shadow.

The S-C texture is a combination of structures commonly developed in ductile shear bands, consisting of an S-texture and a C-texture. Wherein, the S face is the extrusion face prior to the C face, and the C face is the later shearing face.

Subparticles, also known as subgrains, are micro-domains of a mineral separated by subgrain interfaces.

The banded structure is represented by that minerals and rocks with different colors or granularities are arranged alternately, and banding occurs. Or the dark color and the light color of the mineral and the rock alternate with each other layer by layer; or coarser and finer grained minerals, rocks alternate with each other layer by layer, running parallel or nearly parallel to each other in strips in the rock.

The stress creep structure refers to a creep structure formed by dissolving or precipitating SiO2 from crystal lattices under compressive stress due to reduction of molar volume, and the structure is related to stress and is different from an alternative creep structure in metamorphic rock and magma rock, so the stress creep structure is called the stress creep structure.

For feldspar, its landmark structures may include kink bands, oblique book structures, deformation lines, mechanical twinning, sub-grains, broken-speck systems, dynamic recrystallization, nuclear mantle structures, sand bell structures, stress-fringe structures, and exsolution features. If at least one of the above structures is determined to be present in feldspar, then it can be determined that there is plastic deformation of the marker in the surface sample.

The twisted strip is a flat strip with sharp edge-shaped turning in the sheet or the sheet, which is a shear strip with a certain width, and the rock in the strip and the rocks on the two sides do relative shear sliding to enable the layer or face appearance in the strip to change rapidly.

The book inclined structure refers to a series of blocks or fragments cut by a steep fault, each block has rigid body rotation action like a book on a bookshelf falls to the side, and therefore the blocks have relative shearing motion along a positive fault.

The deformation lines are straight or long lens-shaped closely-spaced thin lines formed by impact action or shearing action in the crystal.

The mechanical twins are also called sliding twins, and are twins formed by the action of mechanical external force after the crystals are formed and the sliding deformation of the inner part of the crystals along one direction of the surface net.

The broken specks are broken speck systems formed by mineral broken specks and crystallization tails.

The core-mantle structure is a structure in which deformed grains are surrounded by fine sub-particles and recrystallized new particles.

The sand clock structure refers to a microstructure which is formed in the shape of an ancient western timekeeping sand clock pattern due to the change of components or optical properties in minerals.

The stress stripes are stripes formed by dissolving or separating out sodium in the potassium feldspar or the albite under the action of stress, and the separated stress stripes are distributed along a shearing surface or a cracking surface and are in a wild goose-shaped, flame-shaped, checkerboard-shaped, irregular shape and the like.

Exsolution theory refers to the parallel intergrowth of the two components, similar to the formation of poly-lamellar twins. For mica, its landmark structures may include micaceous fish, canthus construction, pressure shadows, S-C facies, broken speckles, twisted bands. If at least one of the above structures is determined to be present in the mica, then the presence of plastic deformation of the marker in the surface sample can be determined.

Mica fishes mostly develop in quartz mica schist, and under the condition that cleavage of the pre-existing mica fragments is not easy to slide, a micro plow type positive fault opposite to the shearing direction is formed in the direction obliquely crossed with the cleavage in the shearing action process. As the deformation continues, the upper and lower mica chips slip, separate and rotate, forming an asymmetric mica fish. The definition of the rest structure can refer to the description of the relevant part above, and is not repeated herein.

The identification of the landmark structure may be based on experience or related identification standards in the art, and the specific identification method is not described herein again.

In some embodiments, to further improve the accuracy of determining the third region, the deformation strength of the marker in the surface sample may be further determined after determining the presence of both rigid deformation and plastic deformation of the marker in the surface sample.

Specifically, the deformation strength is determined to be of the first order if the original rock structure is retained by the markers in the surface sample, and of the second order if the original rock structure can be identified by the markers in the surface sample having a fragmented structure. And if the marker in the surface sample has a new structure, determining the deformation strength to be three levels.

A schematic structural view of a marker with a primary deformation strength is shown in fig. 2, wherein part 2a shows the primary deformation of quartz 1, part 2b shows the primary deformation of feldspar 2, and part 2c shows the primary deformation of mica 3, it can be seen that at the primary deformation strength, slight cracks appear in the marker, but the original rock structure still remains. A deformation strength of one order indicates that the deformation is weak there and is dominated by mainly rigid deformation and is not favorable for the mineralization of keatite ores.

A schematic structural diagram of a marker with three-stage deformation strength is shown in fig. 3, in which a portion 3a shows a secondary deformation of quartz 1, a portion 3b shows a secondary deformation of feldspar 2, and a portion 3c shows a secondary deformation of mica 3, and it can be seen that at the secondary deformation strength, significant structural fragmentation can be found, but the remaining original rock structure can still be recognized. The deformation strength is secondary indication that the plastic deformation is weaker than the rigid deformation, and the method is favorable for ore formation of the keatite uranium ore.

Fig. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a marker having a three-stage deformation strength, in which a portion 4a shows a three-stage deformation of quartz 1, a portion 4b shows a three-stage deformation of feldspar 2, and a portion 4c shows a three-stage deformation of mica 3. It can be seen that at the third-order deformation strength, obvious new structures appear in the marker. The deformation strength is mainly three-level indicating plastic deformation, the rigid deformation is weaker than the plastic deformation, the favorable effect of the hydrothermal solution is obvious, and the deformation strengths of the two and three levels are favorable for the hydrothermal uranium ore mineralization.

In this embodiment, when the third area is determined, if the uranium content in the surface sample is greater than the preset value, the marker in the surface sample has both rigid deformation and plastic deformation, and the deformation strength is of the second or third level, the area where the surface sample is located is determined as the third area.

As an example, the deformation strength may be judged specifically based on the following judgment rule.

The first order deformation strength may specifically include weak fracture deformation and strong fracture deformation.

The weak fracture deformation is characterized in that the original rock structure is retained, rigid fractures develop locally, and visible light properties such as fractured quartz, feldspar and mica are abnormal.

The strong crack deformation is specifically represented by the concomitant brittleness and toughness deformation of the marker, recrystallization, and healing or cementation after crushing.

The secondary deformation strength may specifically include weak fracture deformation and strong fracture deformation.

The weak fragmentation deformation is characterized in that the marker is cut into irregular fragments by fractures, the displacement among the fragments is small, the marker is approximately spliced, and the integral structure and the basic characteristics of the original rock are remained.

The strong fragmentation deformation is characterized in that a strong fragmentation structure appears, marker particles can be distinguished, the content of broken spots in the rock is obviously more than that of broken base, the broken spots develop and break and edges are refined, and the properties and the structure of the original rock are reserved.

The tertiary deformation strength may specifically include mylonite deformation, primary mylonite deformation, and ultra-mylonite deformation.

The erosive diagenetic deformation is characterized in that most broken spots are present, the broken base content is less than 10%, the mineral directional elongation phenomenon is visible, the mineral directional arrangement is slightly realized, and the marker has wavy extinction, twinned bending and kinking, and recrystallization can also be seen.

The primary prosomillet rock deformation is characterized in that the crushed basis content is more than 10 percent, the crushed basis directivity is obvious when the crushed basis content is less than 50 percent, dynamic recrystallization particles are increased, the marker mineral quartz develops ribbon extinction, subparticle and recrystallization, the feldspar generates twinkle kinks, and the mica generates ribbon extinction or kinks.

The deformation of the prosomillet rock is characterized in that the crushed basis content is more than 50 percent and less than 90 percent, the highest content is not more than 90 percent, dynamic recrystallization is mainly used, the crushed spots are few and small, the plastic flow structure is obvious, the marker develops a rotary crushed spot system, a nuclear mantle structure and an S-C surface, most quartz is recrystallized, and the quartz is in a flow structure around the crushed spots.

The deformation of the ultra-prosomillet rock is characterized in that the crushed base content is more than 90 percent, the crushed speckles are rare, the marker is recrystallized, the plastic flow structure develops, the content of the marker mica and quartz is increased, and the feldspar is reduced or disappears.

Besides the above judgment rules, those skilled in the art may also use other judgment rules and/or combine the actual situation to specifically judge the deformation strength, which is not described herein again.

In some embodiments, when acquiring surface samples in an exploration area, a mine control structure related to hydrothermal uranium ore mineralization in the exploration area may be determined based on mineralization characteristics and structure characteristics in the exploration area, an area where the mine control structure is distributed may be determined as a working area, and then surface samples in the working area may be acquired. And when a third area in the exploration area is determined, if the uranium content in the surface sample is larger than a preset value and the markers in the surface sample simultaneously have rigid deformation and plastic deformation, determining the working area as the third area.

It can be understood that, although the third area is finally determined mainly by means of the microscopic deformation features in the present application, efficiency reduction and cost increase may be caused by sampling the surface samples in the entire investigation area and confirming the deformation features.

The ore control structure refers to a macro structure having control significance for the mineralization of the keatite ore, for example, the ore control structure can include fracture structure zones, altered zones, radioactive abnormal zones, and physical and chemical detection abnormal zones. The radioactive abnormal zone may be determined based on a radiation background value in the survey area, the physical and chemical detection abnormal zone may be determined based on a physical and chemical detection background value in the survey area, and a specific determination method may refer to related technologies in the art, which are not described herein again.

The present invention has been described in detail with reference to the drawings and examples, but the present invention is not limited to the examples, and various changes can be made within the knowledge of those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the present invention. The present invention may be practiced without these particulars.

Claims

1. A method of determining a keatite uranium mine prospect, comprising:

determining a first area in an investigation region, wherein the first area is an area distributed with abnormal areas corresponding to at least one element group, the element group comprises a first element group, a second element group, a third element group and a fourth element group, the first element group comprises uranium and thorium, the second element group comprises one or more same-genus incompatible elements of uranium, the third element group comprises one or more thiophilic elements, the fourth element group comprises one or more volatile elements, the abnormal areas are areas with the content of at least one element in the element group higher than a corresponding abnormal threshold value, and the abnormal threshold value is determined based on the content distribution condition of the corresponding element in the investigation region;

determining a second region in the investigation region, wherein the second region is a region where the mineralizing silicium veins are located;

determining a third area in the exploration area, wherein the third area is an area in which the uranium content in surface rock in the exploration area is larger than a preset value and markers in the surface rock are subjected to rigid deformation and plastic deformation at the same time;

determining the keatite prospect based on one or more of the first zone, the second zone, and the third zone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the keatite prospect comprises:

determining an area in which at least one of the first area, the second area, and the third area is present as the keatite prospect area.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein determining the keatite prospect comprises:

determining an overlapping area of the first area, the second area, and the third area as the keatite prospect area.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the first region comprises:

respectively determining the abnormal region corresponding to each element group in the survey area;

determining the first region in the survey area based on the distribution of the abnormal region.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a spatial relationship between the abnormal zone and a known keatite ore body in the survey area prior to determining the first region in the survey area based on a distribution of the abnormal zone.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining a rank of the first region based on the number of the anomalous regions distributed overlappingly in the first region, the rank characterizing a probability of ore bearing in the first region.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

determining the element groups based on element group characteristics in the survey area.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the second element group comprises at least one of:

lithium, cesium, rubidium, niobium.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the third element group comprises at least one of:

molybdenum, copper, lead, zinc, bismuth and antimony.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the fourth group of elements comprises at least one of:

fluorine, sulphur.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the second region comprises:

determining a siliceous pulse development zone in the survey area;

identifying mineralised siliceous veins in the siliceous vein development zone;

and determining the area where the mineralizing silicon vein is located as the second area.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the identifying mineralised siliceous veins in the siliceous vein developmental region comprises:

collecting a plurality of siliceous pulse samples in the siliceous pulse development zone;

respectively determining the element content of each silicon vein sample;

determining uranium related elements in the silicon vein samples based on the content of elements in the silicon vein samples, wherein the uranium related elements are elements of which the correlation coefficient of the content of the elements and the content of the uranium is higher than a first preset value;

and if the fact that the content of uranium in the silicon vein sample is higher than a second preset value and the relevant uranium elements comprise at least one of tungsten, lead, bismuth, cadmium, antimony, molybdenum, copper, beryllium, vanadium, zinc, barium, cobalt, nickel and chromium is determined, identifying the silicon vein at the position of the silicon vein sample as the mineralizing silicon vein.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying mineralised siliceous veins in the siliceous vein-developing region further comprises:

respectively determining the content of trace elements in each silicon vein sample;

if the situation that the uranium content in the siliceous vein sample is higher than a second preset value and the trace element content in the siliceous vein sample is higher than a third preset value is determined, and the relevant uranium elements comprise at least one of tungsten, lead, bismuth, cadmium, antimony, molybdenum, copper, beryllium, vanadium, zinc, barium, cobalt, nickel and chromium, the siliceous vein in the siliceous vein development area is identified as the mineralized siliceous vein, and the third preset value is determined based on the background value of the trace element content in the siliceous vein.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the identifying mineralised siliceous veins in the siliceous vein-developing region comprises:

respectively determining the quartz vein type in each silicon vein sample;

if the quartz vein type in the silicon vein sample is determined to comprise at least one of red microcrystalline quartz veins, red brown microcrystalline quartz veins, white comb-shaped quartz veins and gray quartz veins, identifying the silicon veins at the position of the silicon vein sample as the mineralizing silicon veins, wherein the microcrystalline quartz veins are the quartz veins with the crystal granularity of 0.01-0.05 mm.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the third region comprises:

collecting surface samples in an exploration area;

determining the uranium content of the surface sample and the deformation characteristics of the markers in the surface sample, wherein the markers comprise at least one of quartz, feldspar and mica;

and determining a third area in the investigation region, wherein if the uranium content in the surface sample is greater than a preset value and the marker in the surface sample has rigid deformation and plastic deformation at the same time, determining the area where the surface sample is located as the third area.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein determining deformation characteristics of a marker in the surface sample comprises:

observing the structure and/or light absorption of the marker in the surface sample under a microscope;

determining deformation characteristics of the markers based on the structure and/or absorbance of the markers in the surface sample.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein rigid deformation of the marker in the surface sample is determined if structural fragmentation of the marker in the surface sample is determined.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein determining that there is plastic deformation of a marker in the surface sample if a change in absorbance of the marker in the surface sample is determined, the change in absorbance comprising: band extinction, wave extinction and fan extinction.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the markers comprise quartz, and wherein upon determining the deformation characteristics of the markers in the surface sample, the presence of plastic deformation of the markers in the surface sample is determined if at least one of the following structures is determined to be present in the quartz:

dynamic recrystallization, tensile linear texture, rotational speckle system, pressure shadow, S-C texture, sub-particles, ribbon structure, stress creep structure.

20. The method of claim 16, wherein the markers comprise feldspars, and wherein when the deformation characteristics of the markers in the surface sample are determined, the presence of plastic deformation of the markers in the surface sample is determined if at least one of the following structures is determined to be present in the feldspars:

twisted band, book diagonal structure, deformed lines, mechanical twins, sub-particles, broken specks, dynamic recrystallization, mantle structure, sand structure, stress stripe structure, and exsolution texture.

21. The method of claim 16, wherein the marker comprises mica, and wherein the marker is determined to be plastically deformed when the deformation characteristic of the marker in the surface sample is determined to be present in the mica if at least one of the following structures is determined to be present in the mica:

muscovitum fish, book inclined structure, pressure shadow, S-C face texture, broken speckles, and twisted tape.