Natural radioelement distribution as a guideline for location of uranium occurrences in areas surrounding Bodal-Bhandaritola prospects in Rajnandgaon District, Madhya Pradesh, India

In this paper the results of airborne gamma ray spectrometric surveys over 1100 sq. km of area (Survey of India toposheet nos. 64 D/10 and 14) in Rajnandgaon District of Madhya Pradesh, India are presented. The area surveyed forms part of Dongargarh Super Group. Bodal and Bhandaritola uranium prospects are located within this area. Uranium mineralisation in these prospects occurs in metabasics, metarhyolites and/or quartz porphyry and is practically free from thorium. As per the analysis of some rock samples from Bodal area thorium values are elevated compared to uranium values in all rock types with the exception of mineralised amphibolites. The airborne spectrometric data is presented in the form of total radioactivity anomalies plotted on the flight path indicating for each anomaly the respective half-width, intensity in counts/sec. of total channel and contribution from uranium, thorium and potassium qualitatively estimated from the flight data. Narrow belt of about 20 km x 2.5 km having predominantly uranium anomalies has been delineated from the airborne data in contrast to the thoriferous anomalies in the rest of the area as recorded in these surveys. This well defined belt comprising of granite, metarhyolite and pegmatites is considered to be a good target for uranium exploration, which is trending NW-SE and is located about 5∼7 km southwest and south of Bhandaritola-Bodal axis. (author). 1 table, 11 refs