Playa Sediments of the Didwana Lake, Rajasthan: A New Environment for Surficial-Type Uranium Mineralisation in India

The Didwana playa, the second largest playa in the eastern part of the Thar desert, is 5.6 km long and 2.4 km wide and supports commercial salt production. The thickness of lake sediment package is reported to be 20 m and comprises fine grained clays and silts, with abundant calcite, gypsum, and halite,associated with hypersaline water. Isolated hills of graphitic phyllite and quartzite are seen on the western side of the lake. During the course of investigations for uranium in surficial environment of semi-arid terrain of Rajasthan, ground water sampling defined a NE-SW trending uranium halo encompassing the Didwana playa. Subsequent sampling of unlined dug wells, up to water table in central part of the playa, indicated uranium values up to 190 ppm and 2072 ppb in lake sediments and brine respectively. These values are of the order of 21 ppm and 192 ppb towards the southwestern periphery of the lake. The average uranium content, as inferred from 12 samples in the central part of the lake, is around 60 ppm over a thickness of 5 m. It appears that the uranium is loosely bonded to the sediments in amorphous form and is, hence, easily leachable. Samples of brine (n = 10), from both the central and southwestern portions of the lake, analysed high (1,67,500-3,00,000 mg/l) TDS, HCO₃^- (1128-8395 mg/l), and SO₄(30,536-88,000 mg/l). These are of alkaline (pH: 7.2-9.3) and reducing (Eh: -200 to -340 mV) nature. Under these Eh-pH conditions below the groundwater table, and for such uranium bearing groundwater, precipitation of primary uranium is expected. It is, therefore, modelled that uranium in lake sediment package above water table is concentrated by evaporation process and by chemical reduction below the water table.

As the sampling is so far confined to zones above water table, the above possibility is still to be examined. Features like high intrinsic uranium in lake (playa) sediments as well as groundwater, the alkaline and reducing nature of groundwater, which may facilitate precipitation of primary uranium below water table, and the large extent of the lake sediments (10 sq km × 20 m thickness) make the Didwana Lake, a potential candidate for hosting a surficial-type uranium occurrence of significance, for which samples below water table need to be generated. These studies are expected to establish the lake sediment environment in semi-arid tracts of Rajasthan as a new target horizon for locating surficial-type uranium mineralisation in India.