U-ISOTOPIC MODEL AS A PROSPECTING TECHNIQUE IN THE MORRO DO FERRO THORIUM DEPOSIT, BRAZIL

It has been suggested that a plot of 234u/238u activity ratio versus uranium concentration in groundwaters can be used to locate uranium accumulations and to determine whether such accumulations are being augmented or deplated by contemporary aquifer/groundwater conditions. In this paper, uranium isotopic analyses were performed for groundwater samples from several boreholes drilled at Morro do Ferro, a thorium and rare earth deposit located on the Poqosde Caldas Plateau, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The data on the isotonic concentrations of dissolved uranium were used to evaluate the applicability of the U-isotopic model in the area.