Specimens Thorite is the most common thorium mineral. Thorium is a highly radioactive element and could be used as a replacement for uranium in nuclear power generation. It is estimated to be three times as common as uranium and all the thorium in the Earth's crust could have more potential energy than both uranium and the fossil fuel reserves combined. Uranium and thorium are considered to be the primary sources of the internal heat of the Earth through their radioactive decay. Although thorite is the most common thorium mineral, it is not the primary ore of thorium.
Enough monazite is mined to supply most of the current thorite demand.
If monazite deposits become scarce or the demand for thorium increases, then thorite and to lesser extents other thorium bearing minerals such as thorianite , thorogummite , huttonite and thorutite will gain greatly in importance. Thorite is currently an important ore of uranium. There is a closely related mineral to thorite called thorogummite that was once considered a variety of thorite but is a product of alteration to thorite. Thorite and huttonite are dimorphs. The two minerals have the same chemistry, they just have different structures, di means two and morph means shape.