Boletín de Geología

Vol. 45 No. 3 (2023): Boletín de Geología
Artículos científicos

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

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  • Andrés Cáceres-Bottia,
  • Luis Carlos Mantilla-Figueroa,
  • Carlos Alberto Ríos-Reyes,
  • Robinson Pimiento-Rueda
Andrés Cáceres-Bottia
Universidad Industrial de Santander
Luis Carlos Mantilla-Figueroa
Universidad Industrial de Santander
Carlos Alberto Ríos-Reyes
Universidad Industrial de Santander
Robinson Pimiento-Rueda
Universidad Industrial de Santander
DOI: https://doi.org/10.18273/revbol.v45n3-2023005

Published 2023-10-26

Keywords

  • Uranium,
  • Vanadium,
  • Epigenetic,
  • Energy transition

How to Cite

Cáceres-Bottia, A., Mantilla-Figueroa, L. C., Ríos-Reyes, C. A., & Pimiento-Rueda, R. (2023). General considerations on the genesis of Uranium and Vanadium occurrence in the Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the Berlin Synclinal, Central Cordillera (Colombian Andes). Boletín De Geología, 45(3), 79–93. https://doi.org/10.18273/revbol.v45n3-2023005

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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.

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