Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-01-30
PROSPECTING FOR RADIUM
Most Precious Substance Known Diff.
cult to Find.


cult to Find.
On the side Of canyons among the
most inaccessible mountains Of Color
ado prospectors are perilously picking
their way, clinging with axes and
ropes to the steep cliffs, carefully sanl-
pling the earth and rock wherever
certain stones show upon the almost
perpendicular slopes. 1t Is not gold
they are seeking, but that far more
precious mineral-radium.
For the richest rndium- bearing re-
gion yet discovered is there in the Par
adox Valley, extending from Hy-
draulic on the north to the Mcintyre
district on the south.
The announcements by DR.. Robert
Able, Of New York, and DR.. Howard
A Kelly, Of Baltimore, that certain
forms Of cancer can be cured by radi-
um applications, the establishment Of a
National Radium Institute for the
cure Of cancer, the ever-increasing
demand from Europe for the ores from
which this most precious substance is
extracted, all coming within a few
months, have given a real boom to the
mining Of radium ores, boom that
would undoubtedly be greater than it
Is were it not for the fact that very
few prospectors would know radium
ore if they saw 1t, and fewer still
10 IL I. 4,
had it.
Radium mining and reduction is
something Of a gamble, anyway. For
radium- producing ore exists only in
pockets in the rock, and it is imposst-
BILE for any one to estimate how much
radium there may be in g. "prospec-
tors hole" Again, the healing value
Of radium Is still uncertain. We have
the assurance Of a few Of the greatest
experts in the world that they have
cured many cases Of cancer with it
that is, they have eIadicated all traces
Of the cancer and this, after several
years, has not reappeared. But ply
sicians and surgeons have learned by
bitter experience to be skeptical about
all reported cures Of cancer, for cancer
has a devilish way Of lying dormant
for years and then suddenly reappear-
ing, sometimes in the original spot,
sometimes in another Therefore there
are many physicians who say one can
never call a case Of cancer cured until
the patient shall have died after many
years, and Of some other disease. The
medical profession at large is still
skeptical Of these cures, and 1t Is less
than six months since the Medical
Record administered to it a severe
reproos for deliberately closing its
eyes to the cures announced by Dr.
Able, Sir Frederick Treves and Dr.
Kelly.
This skepticism is quite comprehen-
sible when it is considered that, in the
words Of Charles L. Parsons, Of the
United States bureau Of mines, only
three or four American surgeons have,
80 far as the bureau Of mines Is in
formed, been able to use it in quanti
ties sufficient for the drawing Of deci-
sive conclusions" Again quoting Mr..
Parsons 1T is doubtful If there Is at
the present time in the hands Of the
medical profession in America more
than a single grain Of this element"
AS it takes several hundred milligTams
to have any effect on cancer, it is not
to be wondered at that surgeons who
have experimental with the minute
quantities they were able to obtain
should have been disappointed In the
results.
The price Of radium is prohibitive,
except for very rich surgeons OF for
generously endowned institutions This
price is about s120 per milligram of
radium metal. But radium metal does
not exist in pure state. 1t is or the
market in the forms Of radium chlor-
ide and radium bromide, which are
bought and sold on the basis Of the
metallic radium they contain. The
present price is equivalent, appro,si-
mately, to $4,000 grain Of radirm
chloride and $4,000 a grain Of radium
bromide.
The newly discovered radium fields
in Colorado are the richest known, but
the highest estimate Of the total guam
tity Of radium in them all places it at
only 900 grains. The highest estimate
the experts Of the bureau Of mines
have placed upon it is only about 1S0
grains, and this includes material of
too low grade to be marketable.
Most of the American radium is ex-
tracted from an ore called carnotte,
which contains uranium oxide. AS a
result Of the great demand European
buyers are now eager to get ore that
contains as low as 1 per cent uranium
oxide. The first radium was produc-
ed from pitchblende, the principal
mines Of which are at Joachimsthal,
Austria. There are pitchblende mines
also in Gilpin county, Colorado, and
there were recently bought by Alfred
l. du Pont, Of Delaware. But the car
notite is by far the most important,
and this ore Is found in insignificant
quantities outside the United States.
The Denver office Of the United
States bureau Of mines has received
so many inquiries about these ores
that it has drawn up a bulletin which
is sent in reply to all inquiries. This
bulletin is as follows:
"Radium is found with uranium
minerals only. Wherever uranium ex-
lists, radium is also found in the min
eral; and where there is no uranium,
radium has never been found. Urani-
um and therefore radium are found in
this country in carnotite and it's asso-
ciated minerals, and in pitchblende.
"Carnotite is a lemon-yellow miner
al usually found in pockets Of sand
stone deposits. The mineral may be
in the form of light yellow specks dis
seminated through the sandstone, or
as yellow incrustations in the cracks
Of the sandstone; or may be more or
less massive, associated with blue,
black or brown vanadium ores.
"Pitchblende is hard, blue black