By Ray Reed
Published: December 14, 2010
DANVILLE — A Virginia Tech professor told some of the world’s leading geologists Tuesday that research is under way to help determine whether more valuable uranium deposits exist in Virginia.
Researchers at Tech also are looking into whether sediment from ore that could be mined from the Coles Hill uranium deposit near Chatham might possibly migrate into drinking water used by cities, said Robert Bodnar, a geochemistry professor.
Bodnar, who was named Virginia’s outstanding scientist of the year, spoke to a National Academy of Sciences panel that has been asked to study the potential impacts of uranium mining in Virginia.
The panel’s report, expected next December, may serve as a guide to Virginia legislators in deciding whether to lift the state’s ban on uranium mining.
Bodnar said he’s interested in learning how the uranium deposit was formed at Coles Hill, so that information can be used to find other uranium deposits in Virginia and nearby states.
So far, he said, research has determined that the granite rocks that hold the uranium, and the uranium itself, are about 441 million years old.
Most granite rocks contain uranium, he said, but only a few sites have enough of the mineral to be worth mining.
Research done in the 1970s indicates uranium deposits exist in the Irish Creek area of Rockbridge County and in the Taylorsville basin in the Fredericksburg area, among other locations.
He also acknowledged that if the price of uranium were to go high enough, “many rocks that are not economic today may be economic tomorrow.”
But if he can determine how the Coles Hill deposit was formed, Bodnar said, he can narrow the search for other deposits.
Based on available information, Bodnar said, possible uranium deposits might be found along the western edge of the Dan River Basin and other Triassic-era basins in Virginia.
Or, he said, another theoretic model for uranium’s formation could mean deposits might be found in granite rocks along the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Read more:
http://www2.newsadvance.com/news/2010/dec/14/uranium-impacts-deposits-discussed-geology-panel-ar-716305/
