Significance of aluminum phosphate-sulfate minerals associated with U unconformity-type deposits: The Athabasca basin, Canada

Abstract

Aluminum phosphate-sulfate (APS) minerals formed around the Athabasca unconformity-type deposits and those from their Australian counterparts are chemically very similar showing the same continuum between the diagenetic Sr-rich APS minerals of the barren sandstones and the LREE-rich composition of the APS minerals in the hydrothermally altered sandstone. The P- and LREE-rich compositions were controlled by the transport and the redistribution of P and LREE elements released from the dissolution of phosphate minerals (principally monazite) in the basement rocks and in the basin during the syn-ore alteration processes.