Uranium from Oil, Oil from Uranium - Examples from the Frome Basin, South Austalia and Jaffna Peninsula , Sri Lanka that may be blessed with the luck of Stella Dysart

by Ganesh Sahathevan

Stella Dysart spent almost 30 years unsuccessfully searching for oil in New Mexico. In 1955, a radioactive uranium sample from one of her “dusters” made her a very wealthy woman.

In the end, it was the uranium — not petroleum — that made Dysart her fortune. The sometimes desperate promoter of New Mexico oil drilling ventures for more than 30 years, she once served time for fraud. But in 1955, Mrs. Dysart learned she owned the world’s richest deposit of high-grade uranium ore.

Mrs. Dysart’s Uranium Well Is A Story Of  Petroleum Pioneer who found riches in coincident uranium is a well known phenomenon. 

These are some examples from other parts of the world.

Frome Basin South Australia 

A processed satellite image of the Cauvery Basin. That
part of the Jaffna Peninsula that is surrounded by oil exploration block C3 is at  the right bottom corner of the image. The parts that are brighter (ie to the left of the peninsula) suggest the presence of uranium, possibly caused by hydrocarbon microseepages from the underlying basin. The coincidence of uranium and hydrocarbon is a known and well documented phenomenon, even if often ignored.

SEE ALSO 

Sunday, May 29, 2022

Is China targeting uranium in the Tindouf Basin, Algeria

 by Ganesh Sahathevan 

Mohand Bersi, Hakim Saibi, Moulley Charaf Chabou, Aerogravity and remote sensing observations of an iron deposit in Gara Djebilet, southwestern Algeria,Journal of African Earth Sciences,Volume 116,2016, Pages 134-150

Splash24.7.com and others reported last year: 

A consortium composed of Metallurgacal Corporation of China, China International Water and Electric Corporation and Hunan Heyday Solar Corporation has signed up to carry out a feasibility study on the exploitation of Gara Djebilet iron ore in western Algeria. The project could cost in excess of $2bn, according to preliminary estimates.

The Algerian side of the Tindouf Basin is interesting for remote sensing analysis conducted by an Australian researcher has  yielded evidence of uranium mineralization possibly coincident with hydrocarbon microseepage.  

It is therefore likely that China is interested in the Tindouf Basin's potential for iron ore, as well as uranium.

END