The uranium-carbonaceous matter association, McArthur River, Canada

The recently developed McArthur River deposit in Saskatchewan, Canada contains accumulations of carbonaceous matter. These accumulations share many of the petrographic features displayed by QPC-hosted radioelement-bearing bitumen nodules from both the Phanerozoic and the Archean. The inclusions within the carbonaceous matter display textures indicative of a hydrothermal or authigenic origin. The primary uraninite has been altered by a P-Ca-REE-bearing fluid(s) to uranyl phosphates, interpreted to be autunite. Chemical dating of the inclusions yields the date of younger alteration/remobilization events, rather than the primary mineralisation events.