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The Role of Organic Matter on Uranium Precipitation in Zoovch Ovoo, Mongolia

The Zoovch Ovoo uranium deposit is located in East Gobi Basin in Mongolia. It is hosted in the Sainshand Formation, a Late Cretaceous siliciclastic reservoir, in the lower part of the post-rift infilling of the Mesozoic East Gobi Basin. The Sainshand Formation corresponds to poorly consolidated medium-grained sandy intervals and clay layers deposited in fluvial-lacustrine settings. The uranium deposit is confined within a 60- to 80-m-thick siliciclastic reservoir inside aquifer driven systems, assimilated to roll-fronts. As assessed by vitrinite reflectance (%Rr < 0.4) and molecular geochemistry, the formation has never experienced significant thermal maturation. Detrital organic matter (type III and IV kerogens) is abundant in the Zoovch Ovoo depocenter. In this framework, uranium occurs as: (i) U-rich macerals without any distinguishable U-phase under SEM observation, containing up to 40 wt % U; (ii) U expressed as UO2 at the rims of large (several millimeters) macerals and (iii) U oxides partially to entirely replacing macerals, while preserving the inherited plant texture. Thus, uranium is accumulated gradually in the macerals through an organic carbon–uranium epigenization process, in respect to the maceral’s chemistry and permeability. Most macerals are rich in S and, to a lesser extent, in Fe. Frequently, Fe and S contents do not fit the stoichiometry of pyrite, although pyrite also occurs as small inclusions within the macerals. The organic matter appears thus as a major redox trap for uranium in this kind of geological setting.