STREAM SEDIMENTS SURVEY FOR URANIUM IN WADI El-Reddah, North Eastern Desert, Egypt

The radiometrical study carried out for the stream sediments of Wadi El-Reddah reveals that uranium is in a disequilibrium state and uranium concentrations in recent uranium deposits are seldom detected by scintillometer. On this base, two types of uranium deposits of the studied sediments are recorded; old and recent uranium deposits. eTh/eU ratio of old uranium deposits in the studied sediments suggests poor weathering and rapid deposition of rock detritus. On the other hand, eTh/eU ratio of recent uranium deposits indicates that these sediments are developed under conditions where uranium was removed from its source and fixed in the sediments with continuous recharge. Two notifications were recorded, the first concerning with the stable increasing of uranium in all directions of Wadi El-Reddah and uniformly decrease in the central part. The second related to the uniform vertical distribution of uranium to one meter depth and may become different in more depths. The qualitative and quantitative mineralogical studies on the stream sediments of Wadi El-Reddah reveals that the most important heavy minerals include uranothorite, zircon, monazite, xenotime, apatite and cassiterite as well as opaque minerals such as ilmenite, magnetite, rutile and hematite. Some very rare minerals were observed in the stream sediments as bismite.
Alpha spectrometry plays an important role in the determination of uranium isotopes concentration in the recent samples.
The extraction for uranium was increased after modification of the old radiochemical procedure.