Geology of the uranium prospect at Camp Smith, New York, with a new model for the formation of uranium deposits in metamorphosed submarine volcanogenic rocks

Uraninite of Precambrian age occurs locally in and around a massive sulfide deposit at Camp Smith, Westchester and Putnam Counties, New York. The host rocks are believed to be part of a sequence of marine sediments and submarine volcanogenic rocks that were metamorphosed to leucogneisses, amphibolites, and amphoholite gneisses in the granulite facies. Ore grade concentrations of uraninite occur (1) in the outer Cu-Ni-bearing zone of the sulfide body; (2) in magnetite-rich and scapolite-rich layers within amphibolite gneiss; and (3) in amphibole-quartz-feldspar + pyroxene pegmatites. The uranium-rich horizons are generally near the contact between rocks of keratophyre and spilite affinities.

It is suggested that the iron oxide, uranium-rich, and sulfide-rich horizons and their host rocks were originally deposited in the distal, volcanogenic, massive sulfide environment.