Bir Um El Fawakhir area is located between latitudes 250 59‘- 260 23' N and Longitudes 330 10' - 330 40' E. It includes some of the most promising uranium occurrences which are related to the younger granite such as Um Had, Kab Amiri and El Erediya plutons. Also, it includes numerous old gold mines such as El Erediya, Atalla, El Fawakhir, El Sid and Hamama. There are numerous ancient gold diggings along a huge NW -SE shear zone which extends about 80km from El Erediya in the north to El Fawakhir in the south.
The present work deals with the analysis and interpretation of airborne gamma-ray spectrometric and magnetic data of Bir Um Fawakhir area in order to explain the structural factors controlling the mineralization in this area. A set of radioelements (K%, eUppm, & eThppm) contour maps as well as their ratio (eU/eTh, eU/K and eTh/K) maps were prepared. They are superimposed individually on the geological map to delineate uranium potentiality. The constructed maps revealed that the southern parts of both Kab Amiri and Um Had plutons as well as the northwestern part of El Erediya pluton are the most promising zones for uranium potentiality. The aeromagnetic data were analyzed and processed by several advanced techniques; reduction to the pole, regional-residual separation, second vertical derivative (SVD), analytical signal, Euler deconvolution and shadowgrams. Analysis of the structural lineaments of the Landsat image along with the geological map shows that most of the well-developed structural lineaments have NW -SE, NE-SW and N-S trends. The fault patterns as delineated from Landsat image are well matched with those obtained from analyzing aeromagnetic data. The mineralizations found along NW-SE fault zones appear as linear patterns. The basic magmatic activities that belong to the Red Sea rifting were intruded through these NW-SE deep-seated faults forming relatively long and narrow dykes as delineated from the aeromagnetic maps. The mineralizations of uranium and gold are controlled in their spatial distribution by fault tectonics and basic magmatic rock. Uranium and gold mineralizations are occurring along these NW-SE sub-parallel faults.