International Uranium Resources Evaluation Project (IUREP) national favourability studies: New Zealand

Uranium mineralisation was discovered in the northwest of the South Island in 1955. In the Buller Gorge area there are strata bound veins and disseminations of coffinite with minor uraninite and thucolite within xudaceous and arenaceous units of the Lower Cretaceous Hawks Crag Breccia. The underlying basement gneisses of the Precambrian Greenland Group contain small uraniferous veins. In the nearby Paparoa Range mineralisation occurs as thucolite in highly carbonaceous arkose of Lower Cretaceous Pororari Shales. These deposits have not been exploited. There appears to be limited potential for significant resources in New Zealand