The sedimentology and uranium mineralization of the Beaufort Group in the Beaufort-West - Fraserburg - Merweville Area, Cape Province

Abstract

The sediments of the lower part of the Beaufort Group (Permian) consist of mudstones, siltstones, fine- to very Fine-grained sandstones and small amounts of intraformational conglomerate. The mudstones are generally a brownish-purple colour, and are massive. The siltstones are generally greyish-green coloured, and are sometimes ripple cross-laminated. The sandstones vary in colour from green to grey. horizontally-bedded, trough cross bedded and ripple cross-laminated sandstone subfacies were recognized. All the sandstones found in the area studied may be described as fine- to very fine-grained, moderately sorted, arkosic wackes. The stratigraphic interval studied was found to have a Thickness of about 850 m. No readily mappable subdivisions were found. The sandstone to stltstone and mudstone ratio for the stratigraphic interval is about 1:4.