Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-05-07
Misecllaneons Reaaina.
ROMANCE OF A RADIUM MINE.
Only Source In the United States Has
Had an Interesting History.

Only Source In the United states mas
Had an Interesting History.
One of the principal sources Of the
worlds supply Of radium ore Is a mine
in Colorado, which was abandoned by
it's first owner. 1t was failure as
gold mine but as a producer Of radium
it has made rich the man who redts-
covered it. 1t is the only mine of its
kind in the western world.
Away back in the sixties a miner In
Central City, Col, broke into a body
of ore one day that was different from
any other he had ever uncovered. II
was massive, extremely heavy, CLASSY
in appearance. hard as quartz and had
a peculiar CLINT. 1t was heavier than
any ore in the same vein, and in color
and appearance it was quite different
from any other mineral known In the
district. The miner took about 1900
pounds, or eleven sacks of this ore 10
the local smelter. He did not know
what 1t was, but he was confident he
he was on the highway to fortune.
The manager of the reducing plant az
ter examining it carefully, announced
1t was worthless.
The miner had an intuition that
sometimes comes to men who dig In
the hills, and which cannot be ex-
planned, that somehow or other the
smelter people were wrong. He was
still confident that the rock contained
great values, and said so.
Impressed by the miners earnest
ness, the manager of the smelter made
another trial and again reported the
ore worthless. With most miners
that would have settled it. With this
man the case was different. He placed
the ore back in the eleven sacks and
shipped them overland by OK teams to
st. Joseph, Mo-, thence by river to st.
Louis, by packet to New Orleans and
by sailing vessel to a smelter In Swan"
sea. Wales. In about six months from
the time his ore left Central City in
the bottom of a great freighting wag-
on he received a check for $1,000, or
81 900 for each sack he had shipped,
after all expenses had been deducted.
Armed with the check he called on the
smelter man and told his store.
May I see the analysis?" asked the
smelter manager.
Here it is," and he passed it over
smilingly.
The face of the metallurgist was n
study as his eye took in the various
items Of the analysis Of the ore. In
the first place, the Welsh smelter paid
a high price for the uranium in the
ore-a far higher figure than the mar
ket rate for gold. Uranium was used
then, as now, as an alloy to combine
with steel for surgical and other In
struments to prevent rust. 1t was
worth more than its weight in gold.
There was gold also IN the ore, but 1t
was so intimately and chemically as
ISOLATED with the uranium that In the
refining process used at that time 1t
was weighed in the uranium, and
hence no attempt was made to sepa-
rate 1t.
The result of the shipment was
fraught with great consequences. It
changed the ideas of American metal
lurgists and directed their minds
along a new channel. 1t was the be-
ginning of the great advance that has
placed them in the front rank Of that
industry in the world. Some Of the
Colorado smelters began to buy ura-
MUM, but as the gold values In those
ores declined and other sources OF
uranium were found that branch OF
the purchasing trade in the United
States fell off. Uranium ceased to
rank among the precious metals, and
the mines where it was found were
closed down. That was the fate OF
the ore in Central City, which was
abandoned and almost forgotten for
many years.
. Then the Curies discovered radium
and the world rang with the news.
Out in Los Angeles there was a miner
who read attentively every scrap OF
that he could obtain about
the new and strange thing. He noted
that the world was being searched for
one that would produce the salts of ra-
dium. He read that uranium was a
sort of first cousin Of radium, and that
wherever one was found the other was
likely to be also. He recalled the story
he had heard about the abandoned
uranium mine near Central City and
started thither. Only af-
ter diligent inquiry was he able to To-
cate the property. 1t had been aban-
doned for many years. At last ne
stood in the Identical tunnel from
which the ore had been taken out
nearly half a century before. He Sc
cured a lease on the property for
sum. Every one thought him
crazy, for the ore was so low grade
that it would not yield $40 a ton and
the western smelters had long since
ceased to pay anything for uranium.
This man started operations quick
ly. He sorted out the uranium ore
technically termed uraninite-and sent
out a shipment of twenty-five tons.
He received in return a check at the
rate of $1,700 a ton-not so much for
the uranium it contained as for the ra-
dunn that was hidden in 1t. Radium
Is estimated to be worth $5,000,00O
pound There was very little radium
in a ton Of this ore, and not much In
a carload, but it Is so extremely pre-
cious and the demand is so great that
this man has found a ready market
for all he can produce.
The uranium ore, after mining, Is
concentrated-that is to say, 1t is pull
verified and all the lighter particles are
washed away by the action Of water
flowing over shaking tables, leaving
the heavier ore containing the urani-
um with it's radium. This Is shipped
to Niagara Falls, where by a special
process, in the high temperature elec-
trio furnaces in operation there, that
portion of it containing the radium Is
reduced to the point where a carload