Current status of uranium exploration in Sri Lanka

Apart from the few occurrences of Gondwana (Jurassic), Miocene and later sediments, most of Sri Lanka consists of Precambrian rocks of Archaean age. These rocks underwent metamorphism under amphibolite and granulite facies conditions about 200 Ma ago. Nine anomalous areas for uranium mineralization were identified after a preliminary geochemical survey of the whole island, except for the northwestern Miocene belt. Consistent low contents of uranium in stream sediment samples suggested that solution or hydromorphic dispersion of uranium is not a prominent mechanism and that most of the uranium dispersion is rather mechanical in nature in most of the country. Six of the above areas lie either within or close to the boundary between the Highland Series and the Vijayan Complex. The latter mainly consists of granitic gneisses, hornblende biotite gneisses, granitoids and migmatites formed under amphibolite facies conditions. Denser sampling (one sample per 1 km2) in Phase II of the programme in two areas, namely Maha Cya and Mala Oya, indicated that further exploration work would be worthwhile. A number of samples from these areas had uranium values greater than 500 ppm. Further, the composition of the amphiboles and pyroxenes from rocks of the Maha Cya area are comparable to those in rocks from known areas of uranium mineralization such as the Mary Kathleen uranium deposit in Australia. (author). 6 refs, 6 figs