The Delta independent., 1911-09-08
WESTERN SLOPE MINERAL
FIELDS ATTRACT ATTENTION
United States Steel Company and
Other Interests Rivaling Over
Colorado Fields.

M'llug ter Radium in connection
with ganadium and uranium, has
brought the United States Steel Co.
and other powerful interests into
keen rivalry in Western Colorado.
Options have passed on practically
every group of promising claims,
so great is the demand for the
ground, and although the develop
ment up to the present time has
not been extensive, twenty four
horse teams are kept busy hauling
from the Paradox Valley, fifty miles
to Placerville, the nearest railway
point. From Placerville it is taken
200 miles over a narrow guage line,
transferred to broad guage cars and
shipped to Galveston and thense by
water to Liverpool.
The extraction of radium from
some of the ore has been accom-
plished and the tests demonstrate
that it is likely to become an i'm
portant source of radium, as well
as vanadium and uranium. 1t is
reported that after the vanadium
and uranium is taken from the ore
which is shipped to Liverpool, ra-
dium is extracted from the residue.
The purchase of the ore from the
producers is made on the basis of
the vanadium it contains. The
prices paid for the ore approximate
ST a pound for the metallic vana-
dium content. Ore that carries 2
per cent metallic vauadium when
delivered at a railway point, is
worth about $40 a ton. After the
vanadium is taken from the ore
and converted into vanadic acid or
ferro-vanadium, the metallic vana-
dunn of these products is worth 81
or more a pound. Recently the buy
ers have been making an allowance
for the uranium in ore. No allow
ance is made for the radium. But,
nevertheless, the fact that the ore
contains radium is one chief reason
for the activity of big capital in
the search for and development OF
the deposits.
Concerning the plans and identy
of the principal operators of the
vanadium fields, no official informa-
tion is obtainable.
| The two problems to be solved
are to determine the extent of the
(
/ ical local treatment for the ore. AL
though the surface outcrops of the
ore are somewhat distributed in
Western Colorado and eastern Utah,
the deepest workings at present eN-
tend only 200 feet from the sur
face. so it cannot be said that the
permanence of the deposits with
depth has been proved.
From the figures that have al
ready been given, il will be. seen
that at the prices now prevailing
for the ore and for ferro-vanadium
or venadic acid, there is margin
of SO pound for a local reduction
plant that can successfully: treat
the ore. At present there is only
one such plant-that of the primos
company at New Mire. Colorado, in
San Miguel county. At this plant
the product is vanadic acid, but the
process employed has not proved
entirely satisfactory. No attempt
is made to recover either uranium
or vanadium. In fact the greater
part OF the ore mined by this COM
pany is rescoelite, a vanadium mica
that is valuable chiefly for its Vana-
dunn content. Concerning the pro-
cess used in treating the ore sent
to Liverpool, no details are aNali-
able. Several companies have hau
chemists and metalurgists working
out processes for a number of yearf
and two or three of them say they
have obtained results that JUSTIFY
the construction of a reduction plant
after the ore deposits have been
further developed and opened.
Vanadium is metal that in
creases the strength, toughness and
durability of steel. A small pro
portion of vanadium will double or
treble the life of a steel spring or
car wheel. Uranium is also steel
hardening metal and is used in the
manufacture of glass. Radium has
therapeutic value, and far larger
quantities than can be obtained are
needed for Investigations conducted
| in scientific laboratories. BY the
discovery of radium the first step
was taken to break up the chemical
atom and to unlock a store of me-
chanical energy. compared to which
the combustion stored in the coal
/ fields of the world is insignificant.
/ The radium content of carnotite is
not so high as that of pitchblende,
but the extent OF carnotite fields in
Colorado makes them most prom
/ Using source of radium supply.
! At the prevailing prices, radium
is worth about 500 a milligram. or
100000 gram. One gram was re-
Gently sold by the Austrian govern