Estonian Graptolite Argillites Revisited: A Future Resource?

Abstract

The occurrence of Cambrian to Ordovician organic-rich black shale deposits has been known in Baltoscandia, including Estonia, for a long time. The Estonian graptolite argillite (GA) shows high to very high concentrations of U (800 ppm), Mo (1000 ppm), V (1600 ppm), Ni and other heavy metals, and are rich in N, S and O, unlike normal shale. The present study provides a new estimate of the total GA tonnage in Estonia, including estimates for U, Zn and Mo. The total preserved volume of GA is about 31.92 billion m 3 , while about 9.02 billion m 3 has been eroded between the Estonian mainland and western islands. The total mass of GA is about 67 billion tonnes at a specific gravity of 2.1 g/cm 3 . About 18.93 billion tonnes of GA has been eroded and re-deposited, including 1.8 million tonnes of U, 22.7 million tonnes of Zn, 6.6 million tonnes of Pb, 4.4 million tonnes of Mo and 13.3 million tonnes of V. In Estonian GA the total U 3 O 8 reaches 6.7 million tonnes, ZnO 20.6 million tonnes and MoO 3 19.1 million tonnes as calculated using a cell size of 400 m.

Chemical Composition of the Mineral Matter of the Attarat Um Ghudran Oil Shale, Central Jordan

“…In more detail, variation in average mineral contents between different core intervals with different oil contents in the El Lajjun deposit have been demonstrated [13,5,6]. Compared with compositions of many other oil shales of the world [7], including the Estonian Paleozoic kukersite [14], and graptolite argillite [15][16][17][18], the Near East oil shales have specifically high contents of carbonate (calcite), silica (quartz, in places with admixture of tridymite and cristobalite -unpublished data by the authors) and sulfur [8]. During 2007-2013, JOSE explored a concession area of about 73 km 2 situated in the southern border zone of AUG, next to WM.…”

The predictive power of airborne gamma ray survey data on the locations of domestic radon hazards in Norway: A strong case for utilizing airborne data in large-scale radon potential mapping

“…a low radon environment (Walker, 1993;Smethurst et al, 2008a, b). Equivalents to the Alum shale crop out in Sweden, Denmark and Estonia (Thickpenny, 1984;Andersson et al, 1985;Berg-Madsen, 1985;Schovsbo, 2002;Schovsbo et al, 2011;Hade and Soesoo, 2014). AGRS surveying clearly performs well in this circumstance.…”

“…3 correlate with a variety of igneous bodies within the Oslo Rift (Ramberg and Larsen, 1978;Ro et al, 1990;Neumann et al, 2004), granitic bodies in the crystalline basement rocks on either side (Slagstad, 2006;Bingen et al, 2008), and the uranium rich black Alum Shale ( Fig. 6; Thickpenny, 1984;Andersson et al, 1985;Stranden and Strand, 1988;Nordic, 2000;Schovsbo, 2002;Ramberg et al, 2008;Schovsbo et al, 2011;Hade and Soesoo, 2014). Uranium low areas correlate with …”

Uranium and Thorium Resources of Estonia

“…Historical and new geological, XRF and ICP-MS geochemical data of the Estonian Ordovician black shale (graptolite argillite), Cambro-Ordovician shelly phosphorite and waste material (tailings) after uranium and phosphate production are combined in this overview (locations in Figure 1). Initial potential reserves for a limited number of elements have been calculated for graptolite argillite ( [2] and this study) and phosphorites (this study). As initial data, the combined database of 468 drill cores (Estonian Geological Survey and Estonian Land Board database, see at www.maaamet.ee [3]) were used for graptolite argillite calculations.…”

“…The dataset was used for calculating raster models of lateral U and Th distribution as well as hypothetical reserves by the same methods applied to the graptolite argillite (GA) dataset [2]. Specific gravities from original phosphorite resource estimations reports were applied in the calculations (2.12 g/cm 3 and 2.26 g/cm 3 for the Toolse and Rakvere deposits, respectively).…”