The objective of _the drilling project was to obtain information to assess the favorability of the Tertiary sedimentary unfts in the Missoula and Bitterroot Valleys for uranium potential. The group of•Montana Tertiary basins, including the Missoula and Bitterroot Basins, has been assigned a speculative uranium potential of 46,557 tons of U308 at $100/lb by the 1980 National Uranium Resource Evaluation report. The seven drill holes, two in the Missoula Valley• and five in the Bitterroot Valley, verified observations made during surface studies and provided additional information about the subsurface that was previously unknown. No uranium was found, although of the two localities the Bitterroot Valley is the more favorable. Thr~e stratigraphic units were tentatively identified on the basis of lithology: pre-Renova elastic unit~, Renova Formation equivalents, and Sixmile Creek Formation equivalents. Of the three, the Renova Formation equivalents in the Bitterroot Valley appear to be the most favorable for possible uranium occurrences and the pre-Renova elastic units the least favorable.
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