Case Study of the United Republic of Tanzania. Appendix II [Background of the Uranium Industry in the United Republic of Tanzania] (French Edition)

The geological setting of the United Republic of Tanzania (Tanzania) is favourable for the occurrence of most major metals, hydrocarbons, coal, uranium, phosphate, and metallic and many non‑metallic minerals. The geological environment of the country covers the entire chrono‑stratigraphic units from the Archaean eon to the Quaternary period. The occurrence of uranium in Tanzania was reported for the first time in 1953 in pegmatites of the Uluguru Mountains in the Morogoro region in the eastern part of the country from locally extracted uraninite. Between 1978 and 1983, the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania sponsored airborne radiometric surveys of the entire country. Uranium occurs in seven geological types: four sedimentary rock types and three alkaline volcanic rock types. The first uranium mineralization is connected to the Upper Proterozoic stratiform copper mineralization of the Zambian Copperbelt type at Chimala in the southern part of Tanzania, close to the Zambian border. The sandstone type lies on the fluvial Karoo Supergroup, which extends from the great Karoo system from South Africa. High uranium concentration occurs in the Upper Tertiary to Quaternary periods in the surficial (calcrete) type deposit in Bahi and Manyoni in Central Tanzania and the lacustrine phosphate deposit of Minjingu. Uranium is also hosted in rift related alkaline volcanic formations with uraniferous carbonatites, such as Galapo (northern Tanzania) and Panda Hill (southern Tanzania). The uranium occurrence blocks are shown.