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AbstractAbstract
[en] France, with an area of 550,000 km2, has been prospecting its territory for uranium for more than 30 years. The proven uranium reserves in all the ore categories defined by the NEA/lAEA are estimated at around 120,000 tU, of which 25,000 tU have already been mined. About 70% of these reserves are associated with granites, while the bulk of the remainder is located in Permian sediments and the last in Paleogene sediments. The prospecting effort has not been distributed equally over French territory. More than half of it - recent orogens and large basins - have been little or very little prospected. On the other hand, the Hercynian massifs and their Upper Paleozoic mantle have been systematically prospected. Nevertheless, even within the latter there is still room for further exploration: extensions of already known mineralizations both laterally and vertically, conventional mineralizations deep down or under a mantle, types of mineralizations not investigated previously (those associated with acid or intermediate vulcanism, peribatholithic shales, alkaline complexes etc.). Of course, in the areas that have not been so well explored, because they appear less favourable, there are still some possibilities, namely, in the areas of recent orogens, mineralizations associated with antemesozoic cores (same types as above) or directly associated with orogenesis (slightly to moderately metamorphic sandstone-phyllitic formations, certain sedimentary formations etc.). As for the large basins, they are capable of containing mineralizations associated with some of their formations (Paleogene of the Basin of Aquitaine etc), but they may also cover workable uranium deposits. It is possible that, in the not to distant future access may be gained to such ores in particular cases. On this basis it does not seem unreasonable to reckon with the discovering of new resources of an order of magnitude between half and the same as those already found. (author)
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Sep 1977; 30 p; IUREP-NFS--92; 48 refs, 1 fig
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