Значительная часть химических элементов в земной коре встречается в состояниях нескольких валентностей. Изменение валентности элементов при смене геохимических условий существования пород сопровождается изменением химических свойств этих элементов и их соединений. Последнее определяет поведение элемента, его способность мигрировать или, наоборот, концентрироваться в данных геохимических условиях.

В настоящее время уран является одним из важнейших энергоносителей. Рост энергопроизводства, необходимый для экономического развития России, в ближайшие десятилетия будет обеспечиваться, главным образом, за счет атомной энергетики, что обусловлено чрезвычайной растянутостью транспортных коммуникаций страны и удаленностью источников энергии от центров энергопотребления [Атлас «Уран России» 2000].

The Republic of South Africa is a metal producer of the first rank. Gold is the most important of the metals and up to the end of 1971, U.S.$ 32 billion had been realized from its sale. This figure was equivalent to 80% of the total value of all metals sold. The gold province is located on the Kaapvaal craton which is composed of Precambrian sedimentary-volcanic and granite-greenstone assemblages ranging in age from 1,750 to 3,500 million years. This craton forms the southern part of the Southern African Shield. No significant gold mineralization has yet been found beyond the boundaries of this shield. On the Kaapvaal craton, five Proterozoic sedimentary-volcanic basins lie on an Archean basement.  <...>

In 1996, the IAEA published the Guidebook to Accompany IAEA Map: World distribution of Uranium Deposits (the ‘Guidebook’). This publication, which was the culmination of a process that began in 1990, introduced a descriptive deposit classification that expanded upon the classification used in the OECD/NEA-IAEA Red Book. Experts from six countries and from the IAEA collaborated on establishing the deposit classification. They also contributed information on a total of 582 deposits worldwide, and provided summary information on these deposits that became part of the Guidebook including their location, status (operating, dormant, depleted, etc.), resources (within a specific resource range — e.g. 1 500 to 5 000 t U), average grade (within a grade range — e.g. 0.03–0.10% U), geologic age, host rocks and tectonic setting. <...>

Anniversaries always cause us to reflect upon where we have been and where we are going. Exactly 100 years before the publication of this volume, the first paper which calculated the half-life for the newly discovered radioactive substance U-X (now called 234Th), was published. Now, in this volume, the editors Bernard Bourdon, Gideon Henderson, Craig Lundstrom and Simon Turner have integrated a group of contributors who update our knowledge of U-series geochemistry, offer an opportunity for nonspecialists to understand its basic principles, and give us a view of the future of this active field of research. It was prepared in advance of a two-day short course (April 3-4, 2003) on U-series geochemistry, jointly sponsored by GS and MSA and presented in Paris, France prior to the joint EGS/AGU/EUG meeting in Nice.  <...>

Research emphasis in traditional mineralogy has often focused on detailed studies of a few hundred common rock-forming minerals. However, scanning the contents of a current issue of American Mineralogist or Canadian Mineralogist, or the titles of recent Reviews in Mineralogy volumes reveals that the emphasis of mineralogical research has undergone considerable change recently. Less-common, low-temperature minerals are receiving ever increasing attention, often owing to their importance to the environment.

The search for a mineral commodity, uranium included, and its eventual production is basically an economic activity. A realistic assessment of the economic viability of a project, whether to fulfill domestic needs or to meet world demand, should therefore be carried out as early and as frequently as possible.

Uranium is a strategic resource that is the basis for both nuclear power and nuclear weapons. Nuclear power accounts for around 16% of the world’s electricity and uses uranium as a fuel to drive steam turbines.

The large scale use of uranium started around 1940 with the Manhattan project and the development of nuclear bombs, but later started to be focused more and more on power generation with nuclear reactors. <...>

Compared with other mineral commodities, especially metals, whose utility has become evident by centuries of trial and error, the appreciation of uranium has developed from theories based in physics in the 1930s to exploit the unique energy density of uranium’s transformation in nuclear fission. Initially this was in the crucible of a world war, but always beyond military uses was the promise of the “uranium boiler” canvassed in the second British MAUD (Military Application of Uranium Detonation) report in July 1941—the work of “one of the most effective scientific committees that ever existed.” <...>

The basic purpose of this book is to present an analysis of the various geochemical methods applicable in the search for all types of thorium and uranium deposits. It is hoped that the data and comments presented will stimulate greater use and research in the methods, especially in those that have up to the present received relatively little attention <...>