The Elk Mountain pilot., 1922-02-09
MULLEN TELLS ABOUT RAD1uM

Mr.. Mullen SAID that over sever
million of dollars worth of radiun
have passed through Montrose.
Three ounces of radium exist il
the world today Five have been pro
duced but two ounces were dissipatet
during the war, when so much wa
used in Illuminating points. 1t take
five billion years for uranium tt
decay and the result is radium. Ra
dium itself is a metal Ii also decay
in 100 years.
The only source of radium is ura
mum. Uranium is found in carnotit,
and pitchblende but the radium from
pitchblende costs ten to twenty pei
cent more and will never compete
with radium from carnotite.
Madame Curie discovered and ex
tracted radium from Montrose county
ore 90 years ago.
The main source of radium is q
belt ten miles wide, eighty miles in
diameter, encircling the La Sal noun.
| tains.
One hundred and fifty miles of this
belt is in Montrose county, or 100000
acres. Allowing over half for ravines
and canyons, there are still 100000
acres of radium bearing ores.
Radium is used for treating cancer,
high blood pressure, rheumatism, etc.
1t has given much to science. Ra-
dunn has shown that the atom can
be broken up. The atom is nothing
but positive and negative ectricity
and working along this line they have
actually manufactured gold, in the
laboratory. This is possible through
radium.
Carnotite contains three metals,
uranium, vanadium and radium. Ura-
mum is the mother of radiuni, from
which it is hard to separate.
There have been spent in the Par
adox valley, s5,OOO,OOO in the develop
ment of radium $4,000 tons of carno-
tite have been mined in this field;
$4,000 tons in Colorado. The Stand
ard can mine 1000 tons a month, al
most indefinitely from ores in sight.
100000 linear feet of ores have been
broken out of the rock in prospect
ing at cost of so cents a foot.
Mr.. Mullen displayed map show
ing the Club camp, the largest radi-
um mine in the world, or one-fourth
of one per cent of the total carnotite
area from which camp a,one 10000
tons of ore have been mined On the
map were marked 5000 diamond drill
holes. In 1916, 25 men worked year
and couldn't find sack of ore. They
then put drills to work and discov-
cred big values.
The world will never have to worry
for radium as it will be many years
before it will be worked out. There
are four big companies working. The
Standard Chemical Co, The Colorado
Radium Co., The U. S. Radium Co.,
and the o. L. Cummings Co.
To produce an ounce of radium
needs 4S diamond drills working 80
days. Then the mining of $4,000 tons
of carnotite and also the removal of
100000 tons of worthless rock.
1t requires 5000 miners working
one day; 900 5-ton trucks to haul it
to the railroad at cost of 1915 900;
then it costs 100000 to ship the ore
to the refinery in the east. 1t re-
quires $4,000 tons of acid to treat the
ore; 10000 tons of coal; 100000 tons
of distilled water; $500 men working
one month to heat the ore, 1t then
costs 100000 to sell the ounce for
S3,36O,00O. There is no money in
making radium for the profit comes
from the vanadium with it. There
are 100000 pounds of vanadium metal
in nature with every ounce of radium
metals. The profit comes from this
by-product, vanadium. Montrose
Press.