The Geology and Production History of Uranium Deposits in the Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation, Near Rough Rock, Apache County, Arizona.

The Salt Wash Member of the Morrison Formation of Jurassic age contains significant deposits of uranium-vanadium minerals in the Lukachukai Mountains in northeastern Apache County, Arizona. Similar, but smaller, deposits have been mined around the perimeter of the Carrizo Mountains north of the Lukachukai Mountains (Chenoweth and Malan, 1973). During the uranium boom of the 1950's a small amount of uranium was mined from the Salt Wash near Rough Rock Trading Post in northwestern Apache County (Figure 1). Although some information concerning this area has been published (Chenoweth and Malan, 1973), this report gives the details of the production history. Much of the information presented here was recently located in the old records of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) in the archives of the U.S. Department of Energy's Grand Junction Projects Office, Grand Junction, Colorado. A review of the 1950-53 records of the AEC's ore-buying stations provided accurate information on the dates early ore shipments were received. Information previously published by Chenoweth and Malan (1973) and Chenoweth (1973) was found to be incorrect.Documents in the AZGS Document Repository collection are made available by the Arizona Geological Survey (AZGS) and the University Libraries at the University of Arizona. For more information about items in this collection, please contact azgs-info@email.arizona.edu