Geology of the Lisbon Valley Uranium district, southeastern Utah
— Gary C. Huber

The Lisbon Valley uranium district, or the Big Indian uranium district, is located in the east-central part of the Colorado Plateau (fig. 1). The district is approximately 50 km southeast of Moab, Utah. The majority of the uranium deposits occur in the Moss Back Member of the Chinle Formation (Triassic); however, minor amounts of ore have been produced from sandstones of the Cutler Formation (Permian).

 

Uranium was first discovered in the area in 1913 at the southern end of the district in Chinle sandstones (Wood, 1968). By 1948, a low-grade deposit had been developed in upper Cutler sand- stones. In July of 1952, Charles A. Steen intersected 4 m of high- grade uranium in the lower sandstones of the Chinle Formation. The first ore produced from this discovery was on December 4, 1952 (Stocking, 1975), and in the following years the largest uranium district in southeast Utah was delineated.