The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-12-28
UTAH SHIPS RADIUM
ACROSSATLANTIC
Carnolite Deposits Being
Depleted from State
U. S. is INTERFERING
Institute Is Established and the With
drawal of Ground Is Probable.
Shipments in 1912 Valued
at $4,000

Salt Lake City, December 27-lspe-
eial)--A special from Washington
says:
Deposits of radium- bearing minerals
in this country are being rapidly de-
pleted by wasteful exploitation, chiefly
for the benefit of foreign markets, ae-
cording to report Just issued by the
bureau of mines. From Colorado and
Utah, said to possess the most import
ant radium- bearing deposits known in
the world, the report said. there was
shipped to Europe in 1912 carnotite ores
valued commercially at $4,000.
"In this time only one American
company was engaged in making ra-
dium, and it's product has only recent
ly been offered for sale.
This, the report added. "opened to
foreign medicine and science opportu-
mites in this most promising field that
have been denied to our own people
except by purchasing the manufac-
tured radium compounds at an almost
prohibtive price,"
In the December issue of Metallur-
gical and Chemical Engineering is an
article which says:
For over a decade the carnotite de-
posits of southwestern Colorado and
southeastern Utah have been exploited
in a desultory way. They have been re-
garded mainly as possible sources of
vandaium and Uranium, and up to two
or three years ago the ores We're mined
and treated for those metals exclu-
sively. Recently, however a new phase
has been put on the whole situation
by the general recognition of these
ores as source of radium; and the de-
mand for salts of the latter element
has lent a nadded value to the de-
posits Not only had this district come
into prominence in the eyes of Amer
lean scientists, but it has gained a
world wide reputation, so that foreign
capital has sought to purchase the
ores mined there, or, failing in that,
to buy mining claims that might be
developed profitably
THE vast change in the situation has
been caused by realization of the radum
value of these ores, and with that realiza-
! tion came the feeling on the part of some
! of our altruistic scientists that this inn
| portant tresource should be conserved
! for the benefit of our own country; that
| the radium-bearing ores should be treated
here instead of in Europe and the radium
placed at the disposal of American scen-
lists.
Institute Organized
| THE result is the organization of the
| National Radium institute. The institute
| has provided capital for the purchase OF
| carnotite claims. and the mining and
treatment of the ore. A cooperative
agreement exists between the institute
and the National Bureau of Mines where
by the latter carries on the technologit
study of the ore treatment and supervise.
for time the actual process of recover
ing the three valuable constituents, uralr
ium, vandadum and radium. The insti.
tute is a philanthropic body to the exteri
that its capital is to be expended in the
production of radium which will not be
sold. but used for scientific purposes
THE reduction plant of the National
| Radium institute will be built In Denver
| where 1t can be under the Immediately su-
pervision of the officials of the Bureau Of
Mines who are charged with the techno-
! logic work on rare metals.
! 'With the impetus given to the radium
| industry by the organization of the insti-
| tGte, and the cooperation of the federal
| government, we may expect to witness a
| few disreputable promotions by unscrupu-
| lous parties who will prey on the public
| through promises of fabulous returns on
a small investment"
! Paul Valtinke, local mining geo
logist of high standing, has just re-
turned to Salt Lake from a trip of
! linvestiga tion into the carnotite ores Of
/ the southwestern part of San Juan
county. The report which he brought