In order to fully implement the "Outline of China's Natural Uranium Development Plan" and speed up the exploration of a number of new mineral areas, the China Nuclear Industry Geology Bureau has issued a high-precision aerial geophysical survey project in the Qaidam Basin. The project was undertaken by the Shijiazhuang Base of China Nuclear Geological Science and Technology (Aerial Survey and Remote Sensing Center), which actively implemented the requirements of finding out the background of uranium resources, and for the first time discovered important uranium clues for large-scale belt aerial release anomalies in the western part of the basin, helping to make a rapid breakthrough in uranium prospecting in the basin.
According to the available data, due to the rapid uplift of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, the Qaidam Basin has strong tectonic activity, the structural style of the target layer is complex, and the geological conditions of conventional "interlayer oxidation" uranium mineralization are unfavorable. In recent years, industrial uranium deposits have been drilled in the western part of the basin, and two uranium mineral fields have been implemented, which has greatly expanded the prospecting space of uranium deposits in the basin, but the prospecting prospects and potential of the basin have yet to be further identified.
Under the guidance of the China Nuclear Industry Geology Bureau and the innovative prospecting concept, the high-precision aeromagnetic and radioelectric survey project carried out by the Shijiazhuang Base of China Nuclear Geology and Technology (Aerial Survey and Remote Sensing Center) in the Qaidam Basin has newly discovered the important uranium clues for large-scale banded aerial release anomalies for the first time. The aero-release anomaly zone has great prospecting potential for sandstone-type uranium deposits.
Li Ziying, chief expert of CNNC, conducted a field investigation to explore the relationship between the aerial release anomaly and the spatial distribution of uranium metallogenic in the western basin, the Paleogene-Quaternary prospecting ideas and prospecting breakthroughs, uranium mineralization and metallogenic mechanism, and other key technical issues. It is proposed that the sandstone-type uranium mineralization in this area is obviously controlled by the structure, and the Cenozoic horizon has great potential for further sandstone-type uranium prospecting, and the Qaidam Basin is expected to become the next national uranium resource guarantee base in China.
*：2023.12.15 China Nuclear Geological Science and Technology WeChat.