Uranium, Thorium and Rare Earth Element Deposits of Turkey

This chapter is about the deposits and the mineral occurrences containing uranium, thorium and rare earth elements in Turkey. The data include exploration studies and the formation/origin and characteristics of these deposits. Uranium deposits in Turkey are mostly in western Anatolia. Among them, the Koprubasi (Manisa), Fakili (Usak), Kucukcavdar (Aydin) and Sorgun (Yozgat) deposits are of a sedimentary type, while only the Demirtepe (Aydin) deposit is a vein-type uranium deposit. The Sorgun deposit occurs in Eocene sediment while others are from the Neogene age. In the Demirtepe deposit, the ore is found in fault zones within Paleozoic schists. Indications of uranium concentrations are also found in Southern Marmara and Eastern Black Sea, Dadag, Sebinkarakisar, Ayvacik and Mazidag regions. A complex ore deposit consisting of thorium, rare earth elements, barite and fluorite occurs in the Kizilcaoren (Eskisehir) region. The ore occurs as large veins and cement of tectonic breccias. In addition, indications of thorium concentrations are also found in the Malatya-Kuluncak, Kayseri-Felahiye, Sivas and Diyarbakir regions. Beside the Kizilcaoren REE mineralisation, Canakli (Isparta), Mortas-Dogankuzu (Konya) and Sofular (Malatya) are important REE mineralisations in Turkey.