General considerations on the genesis of Uranium and Vanadium occurrence in the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Berlin Synclinal, Central Cordillera (Colombian Andes)

Abstract

The mineralization at the Berlin project in Colombia presents a huge interest based on its relatively high uranium and vanadium concentrations (0.11% U3O8) and (0.45% V2O5), with a suite of other economically interesting elements, all of them necessary to achieve the energy transition, including Y, Re, Ag, and P. The present research suggests a hypothesis for the U and V mineralization: an epigenetic origin. The results indicate that the source for U, V, and the other economic elements associated, were released from the black shales of the Abejorral Formation that is overlying a carbonate succession of Cretaceous wackestone. Those elements were transported in diagenetic fluids under specific physical and geochemical conditions. Efficient strata-bound trap occurred when the carbonate succession triggered a redox front that interacted not only with mineralized fluids, but organic matter and H2S.