The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-02-13
INTERESTING FIGURES ISSUED
ON PRECIOUS ORES BY GEO
LOGICAL SURVEYS.

Probably no other mineral is mined
attention and at the same time has
SO small total monetary value as
the uranium minerals. This interest
Is, of course, due not to the minerals
as such. nor to the uranium they con-
tain. but to the accompanying radium,
which is found only with uranium.
Hitherto the interest in radium. though
lively, has been largely academic. on
account of the marvellous qualities
which il displays when compared with
better known elements. Toward the
end of 1913. however public interest
became almost feverish, owing to the
apparent cures of cancer wrought by
the appica ton of the gamma rays
given off by rad.um.
Uranium minerals were produced
in commercial quantity in the United
States in 1913. as shown by prelimi-
nary statistics gathered by Frankk l..
Hess, of the Unites States geological
survey only in Colorado and Utah.
and although during the year some
pitchbiende was mined in Colorado
in the Belcher and Calhoun mines,
only a few pounds were sold, though
fifty dry tons Of low grade material
carrying 40 per cent uranium oxide
CUB OS) was shipped to France from
the Kirk mine. This had been mined
in previous year. Carnotite, a yellow
powdery or waxy mineral found In the
sandstones of the high plateau be-
tween the Rocky Maintains Of Col
orado and the San Rafael Swell of
Utah, south of the Book Cliffs, fur
nished the whole production.
Carnotite, rs the word is ordinarily
J nc a to c
yanadate. Several yanadium minerals
occur with the carnotite. so that In
mining for uranium a great deal OF
vanadium is also obtained. AT New
mire, San Miguel county. Colo. one of
the vanadium minerals. roscoehte, oc-
ours practically free from uranium,
and is work I'd for vanadium alone.
Nearly Fifty Per Cent Increase.
The total mine shipments Of ura-
MUM and vanadium. as shown by pre-
| liminary figures. were equal to
2140 tons Of dry ore, carrying an
| equivalent of 50 tons If uranium oxide
| The vanadium in carnotite ores ship
| ped, together with that which is es-
! timated to have been produced from
the Newmire district, was equivalent
| to 914 tons of vanadium oxide. These
quantities are equal to about 1928 tons
| Of metallic uranium, and 41c tons OF
metallic vanadium.
The bureau of mines has determined
! that carnotite carries about 90 per
cent or even a little more of the theo-
] retical quantity of radium In eaui-
1 librium. which. according to Ruther-
ford t"Radioactive substances and
/ their radiations. p, 16). is equal to
about 1 gram in 5000 Kilograms of
uranium. Assuming that 80 per cent
of the radium is recoverable. This
| would give in the eHtpHt-ef- 1919 an
equivalent Of about $40 grams of me-
! tallic radium. or 1910 grains of hy-
drous radium bromide, worth. at $120
milligram of metallic radium, about
] $1,055.000. The total alue OF the
carnotite ores sold was about $142.-
| 900, which represents the uranium
value only, as little was paid for the
vanadium content. and the figures for
/ these receipts are not yet in hand.
The production Of the year was the
| largest ever made, according to the
geological survey figures, that for 1919
being equivalent to SO short tons of
uranium oxide t22 tons OF the metaD'
and that for 1911 being equivalent to
I25 tons Of uranium oxide Gala tons Of