The Washington herald., 1914-05-17
DIUM SSCARCE ANDCOSTLY

metal as contained in radium bromide or
radum chloride. The quotation of $780,
900 4 gram for radium metal is equiva-
lent to 81. 900 a gram for radium chloride,
or $4,000 a gram for radium bromide.
There Is also a small supply of low
grade pitchblende ore in Cornwall, Eng
land DIR. Holmes continued. 1T IS
found in mines producing tin. These de-
posits. 1t is thought, will yield six grams
Of radium bromide in 1914 The carnotite
ores of Australia will probably yield one
and one-tenth grams Of radium bromide.
Then Portugal may produce one and a
half grams. The total possible produc-
ton of radium bromide from European
and Australian fields will amount, there
fore. to twelve and six-tenths grams.
American ores sent to France will pro-
duce about twsnty-four and six-tenths
grams during the present year. as
against a total production Of fifteen
grams in 1872.
Tho supply will be only a small frac-
lion Of the quantity in demand. Our own
army and navy surgeons. as I have said.
want ten grams, and the Public Health
Service has asked for twenty grams. Our
large hospitals ought to have 200 grams.
OBVIOUSLY. the world must depend on
the United States for its main supply OF
radium. The richest deposits OF car
hottie ore, as I have stated. are in Colo
RADIO and Utah. About 1000 claims have
been staked of so far. A claim is l,SO0
feet long by 800 feet wide. being ten acres
in area Perhaps no more than $50 of the
claims are reasonably good. Many OF
them were bought by few corporations
at prices ranging from $50 to 500 each.
Il Radium Already Monopolised:
The Standard Chemical Company. Of
Pittsburgh, owns 40 claims; Thomas F.
Curran and associates own IS claims; the
International Vanadium Company, Of
Liverpool England. owns so claims; the
Colorado Carnotite Company owns .
claims; the Radium Company Of America
and W. L. Cummings each own from -
to Is claims and the Crucible Steel Com
pany and the National Radium Institute
each own is claims. Engineers employed
by the Denver Chamber of Commerce,
experts in the Bureau of Mines. and
members of the Geological Survey say
that all of our deposits of carnotite have
been located.
The carnotite districts in Colorado and
Utah are about $4,000 acres in extent.
They are the regions where pockets,
often having no more than fifty tons OF
marketable ore apiece, are likely to be
Uncovered. The pockets are not con-
nected4 by stringers, and there is no evil
dence OF vein formatlon. one pocket uoeS
not mean that other pockets are in the
same vicinity. A committee of expert
enced Colorado engineers has reported
that carnotite Is mined in small and
cratic pockets, and should be carefully
sorted by hand, so that approximately
five to ten tons must be mined for every
ton shipped
"Ore from the claims of the Standard
Chemical Company. the Radium Com
pany of America, and the Crucible
Steel Company is being treated In the
United States, while the ore from 200
other claims is being shipped to Europe.
There have been no unusual profits SO
far to the producers Of carnotite. Detailed
accounts have not been kept showing the
cost of production, but our experts es-
Innate that getting the ore out and sort
ing it by hand ranges from $50 to so
ton, to which must be added = for pow
der and wear of tools. 81 for bags, SO
fo- hauling, and $14.50 for freight from
the railway station to Galveston and
thence to Hamburg, Germany, or Liver
pool. England.
Il would say that the cost Of ore to