The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1922-11-30
RAOIUM ORE DEPOSITS
DISCOVERED IN AFRICA
ACCOUNTS FOR THE LOWER
PRICE OF THE PRECIOUS
SUBSTANCE.

The national observance of cancer
week." when public spirited men, the
most Of them physicians have shown
anew the tragic seriousness of cancer,
has again turned attention to radium
as one of the principal agencies Tor
coping with that appalling scourge.
Radium is not specific for cancer.
for which there is no specific but it
has repeatedly proved to be of very
great efficacy in the treatment not on
Ily of cancer but OF some other dis
eases.
Almost simultaneously with cancer
week, according to the United States
geological survey, there has been a
great drop in the price of radium; in
stead of the former price $4,000 per
gram (about 1874 grains) of elemental
radium, the price now advertised is
$4,000 per gram.
A considerable reduction in price
had preceded this drop. because sew
eral manufacturers had on hand con-
siderable stocks of radium, which, ow-
ing to the present financial conditions,
were not sold readily. The recent
great drop however was not due to
this cause-it was due to the discov-
cry in Katanga, in Belgion KongO, of
large deposits of very rich easily
worked radium ores and to the cree
ton of a plant at Oolen, Belgium,
about 40 miles from Antwerp for pro
dueing radium from those ores.
Location of the Deposits.
These deposits are at Luiwishi and
Kasolo. near Elizabethville. in the ex-
IRENE southern part of Belgian Kon-
go. and consist of veins on the prop
erty of the Union Miniere du Haut-
Katanga, a British Belgian company
operating huge copper bearing proper
ties in Katanga. The veins carry
pitchblende which is in large part al
tered to gummite. uranophane and
other uranium minerals. A subsidi-
airy company has been formed to ex-
tract the radium and a considerable
quantity of ore carry many times as
much radium as the carnOtite ores
that have heretofore governed the
worlds markets has been shipped to
Belgium. No data are at hand, how
ever to show that in the aggregate
the newly found deposits will event
ually yield as much radium as the de
posits in the plateau region of the
United States though a considerable
quantity can be produced from the
Katanga deposits at a much lower
cost and it is that cost that is ruling
the radium market today
American Radium Mines Closed.
Recognizing the value of coopera-
ton, American companies, closing
down their own mines, have undertake
en- to market the African product and
radium is therefore now offered at a
price lower than any that has prevail
ed since it became an object of COM
merce, and an opportunity is thus Civ
en- to branches of government, h0spit-
ais, doctors and philanthropists to OBJ
tain the precious material at a mini
mum expenditure, for it seems prob
able that the price will go no lower
Eventually the principal source of ra-
dunn will again be the carnotite de
posits of the west and when that time
comes. if not before. the price will
again rise
Opportunity for Philanthropic Work.
The state of New York and the city
of Philadelphia have each bought two
grams of radium for the use of their
citizens and the province of Quebec
has bought one gram. It is hoped that /
other municipalities, states. or coun- /
tries will buy radium at the present /
advantageous price, particularly as /
the work done during cancer week is /
likely to occasion a great call on in .
situations for the treatment of cancer .
in its early stages, when it is most
lmenable to treatment by radium. .
Here is a remarkable opportunity for
men to do something to help
sufferers from cancer and some other
diseases that may be cured
by the use of radium.