THORIUM AS AN ENERGY SOURCE - Opportunities for Norway ...

Thorium as an Energy Source - Opportunities for Norway
veins with Th-minerals have been identified. The carbonates are thought to have been intruded
from an underlying carbonatite. Locally these veins show high Th-grades [12].
3.1.4 Thorium in Heavy Mineral Sand
On a global scale heavy mineral sand, mostly beach sands, are an important host for several
minerals such as zircon (zirconium silicate, ZrSiO4), garnet, etc. and metals such as titanium (Ti),
cerium (Ce), Y, etc. and Th. Such thorium resources having significant size and grade are not
known in Norway, neither as sands nor as metamorphosed sands.
3.2 The Fen Complex in Telemark County
The Fen area is geologically unique with its magmatic carbonate rock, situated in the
Precambrian gneisses of Telemark, about 120 km South West of Oslo. The central intrusive
represents a cross-section of the feeder pipe of a volcano, active about 600 million years ago [13].
Around the central intrusive, with diameter of about 2 km, numerous satellite intrusions occur.
Within the Fen area carbonatites and carbonatite-complex geology are dominant [10], [14], [13].
The rock types which occupy the largest fraction of the Fen surface area are søvite (calcite
carbonatite), rauhaugite (dolomite carbonatite), rødberg (hematite–calcite–carbonatite) and fenite
(alkali-metasomatised granitic gneiss) [15]. An overview is given in Figure 3.1.
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Figure 3.1: Bedrock Geology of the Fen Central Complex.