Uranium Mining in Colorado - South Park

South Park

Prospectors examined copper-stained sandstone a mile south of Garo in Park County in 1903, but the copper content was too low to mine. In 1919, prospectors discovered that the sandstone contained uranium and vanadium, and about 40 tons of ore containing up to 1% uranium was mined from underground workings. The mine was reactivated as an open-pit uranium mine in 1951 and closed in 1952. The ore consisted of the uranium-vanadium minerals tyuyamunite, metatyuyamunite, and carnotite, along with the copper minerals covellite, chalcocite, azurite, and malachite, and the copper-vanadium mineral volborthite, in the Maroon Formation of Pennsylvanian-Permian age. The ore is associated with faulting-induced fractures in the sandstone.

Horizon Nevada Uranium Inc. has announced plans for exploration drilling in 2008 for uranium in the South Park Ranch area of southeast Park County.

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