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Occurrence of tosudite in the Guezouman, Tarat and Tchirezrine 2 formations, hosts of uranium deposits in Niger (Tim Mersoï basin)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Sophie Billon ,
Patricia Patrier ,
Daniel Beaufort ,
Paul Sardini  and
Aurélia Wattinne-Morice
Sophie Billon*
Affiliation:
Société ERM, rue Michel Brunet, Bat. 35, 86000 Poitiers, France Université de Poitiers, UMR 7285 CNRS, IC2MP, rue Michel Brunet, Bat. 35, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France
Patricia Patrier
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers, UMR 7285 CNRS, IC2MP, rue Michel Brunet, Bat. 35, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France
Daniel Beaufort
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers, UMR 7285 CNRS, IC2MP, rue Michel Brunet, Bat. 35, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France
Paul Sardini
Affiliation:
Université de Poitiers, UMR 7285 CNRS, IC2MP, rue Michel Brunet, Bat. 35, 86073 Poitiers cedex 9, France
Aurélia Wattinne-Morice
Affiliation:
AREVA, 1 place Jean Millier, 92084 Paris la Défense, France
*
*E-mail: sophie.billon@univ-poitiers.fr
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Abstract

Tosudite, a regularly interstratified chlorite-smectite, crystallizes as an alteration mineral of several preexisting Al-bearing silicates (feldspars, kaolin minerals, chlorites) present in arkosic sandstones hosted in uranium deposits in Niger. X-ray diffraction patterns show a sharp superstructure at 29–29.6 Å for an air-dried state and a peak at 30.8–31.6 Å following ethylene glycol solvation. The 060 reflection at 1.507–1.509 Å indicates an overall dioctahedral character, and the very low coefficient of variation of the d00l reflections for the solvated mineral (0.03–0.13) permits validation of the regular interstratification justifying its identification as tosudite. Microprobe analysis allowed specification of the component layers of this mixed-layer mineral. The chlorite is a di-trioctahedral type analogous to sudoite (Si3Al4Mg2(OH)8), and the smectite component is a low-charge montmorillonite type Tosudite is characterized by large Al2O3 and MgO contents and small Fe content; its composition corresponds approximately to the formula where octahedral occupancy is ∼7. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations show that tosudite is closely associated with some uranium minerals: tosudite crystallization occurred during a late alteration event which post-dates burial diagenesis and during which uranium was remobilized by Mg-rich oxidizing fluids.

Keywords

tosuditeuranium depositsNigersandstonesoxidizing fluidspost-diagenetic alteration
Type
Research Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , September 2016 , pp. 635 - 651
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2016

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Footnotes

†

This work was originally presented during the session ‘The many faces of chlorite’, part of the Euroclay 2015 conference held in July 2015 in Edinburgh, UK.

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