The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-07-13

so as to come under the ore body and
mine the ore from the roof The other
method used is to drive a tunnel into
the formation, extracting the ore as
the work progresses. Due to the poe
kety, discOntinuous nature of the ore
bodies. mining is very uncertain and
difficult at the best; coupled with this
a large amount of dead work is ne
cessary to obtain comparatively
small amount of shipping ore.
AS an instance of this the biennial
report of the bureau of mines of the
state of Colorado for the year 1919
states that one company drilled ST.
900 linear feet in testing for carnotite
deposits during the period of three
years preceding the report and that
the largest pocket encountered gave
up only about 2OS0 tons OF ore. The
total output of uranium and vanadi-
UNI ores in the United States during
the fve-year period 1916-192O, inclu-
sive. amounted to 1919 short tons
From this tonnage was obtained
529.27 tons of uranium oxide; 4498s
tons of uranium; 2OSO.9 tons of vana-
dunn and only 1856 grams of radium
or about AZ ounces Troy weight.
Practically all the carnotite prop
critics are in an arid region where
water is very scarce; oftentimes it is
necessary to pack water a distance
of from to miles for culinary pur-
poses. Many mines are so miles from
a railroad and some of them are as
far as 20 miles from a wagon road. It
is not uncommon to have to pack the
ore distance of from IL to 20 miles
on animals and then a distance of
from so to go miles by truck to the
railroad shipping point Dynamite,
gasoline for machinery rails pipe,
lumber, baled hay and foodstuffs are
packed into these camps on mules or
burros. Occasionally a temperament
al mule loaded with a hundred pounds
of dynamite will display his DISPOSE
ton where the trail is three wide and
500 feet above the nearest stop. The
trails TO such camps are steep, and
in the winter and early spring are icy
and treacherous.
This may give some sort of idea of
the amount of work incidental to pro-
ducing a small amount of radium. The
$50 tons or more of raw material that
is actually shipped for a gram of ra-
dunn, may represent only -fortieth
or -hftieth of the total amount of
rock moved in the mines. There may
be represented thousands of feet of
diamond drilling. variable amounts of
shaft sinking or incline and tunnel
driving, much skill and care in min
ing. hand sorting of the ore. sacking
transportation from - to 20 miles on
the backs of animals, auto trucking
40 to 60 miles to a railroad 300 to 1000
miles railroad haulage to the treat
ment plants, and the final cost of re-
ducing this $50 or more tons of ore |
down to a tiny gram. No small |
amount of credit is due to those men |
who had faith enough in this element !
and the courage to attempt to COM
mercialize these deposits.
Up to this time three marketable |
products are recovered from carnotite. |
The most valuable of course is radi-
um which under normal conditions is |
sold at $4,000 a gram vanadium, |
which in the form of ferro vanadium,
is very much in demand in the steel |
industry. and uranium from which
the radium is extracted, and which is
used in the higher arts for colOring as
well as in the manufacture of glass,
In the form of uranium oxide
The industry at present is somet
what depressed, not due so much to
he lack of demand for radium, as to
he fact that the professional man IS
not in a position to pay for his wants.
rhe steel industry being below nor
nal makes the demand for vanadium
It this time very light The invest
nent already made in this industry
md the fact that 80 per cent of the
worlds supply of carnotite ore is in
hat portion of our country already
described would indicate that it will
become a permanent fixture in the
mining scheme of the state of Colo d
ado. s