Evening star., 1950-02-13
Western Prospectors
Now Hunt Uranium Ore
Seek Bits Of Curnotite
With Geieer Counters
Bv Thomas X. Henry

By Thomas r. Henry
All over the West prospectors are
hunting for canary-yellow specks In
sandstone.
They are searching as avidly today as
prospectors of rs years ago, armed with
picks and hammers, tramped over the
same territority hunting other yellow
specks which indicated the presence Of
gold.
The specks sought today are bits Of
mineral carnotite. the only domestic
source of uranium, the basic fuel Of
any atomic bomb or atomic engine. There
is one major and rich deposit in Colo
rado. For many years it has been ex-
plotted for the associated mineral vana-
dunn, named for the Morse goddess Of
love by romantic German chemist.
Vanadium is essential for the steel indus
dustry. Otherwise, so far as known up to
now, carnotite is widely distributed
through the Rocky Mountain area, but in
very diffuse fashion. 1t has been un-
profitable to exploit the deposits and.
unless new methods now being tested
prove successful would remain inordi-
nately costly even for atomic bomb de-
velopment.
There always is the hope, however,
of finding rich deposit, comparable to
those now being worked by the vana-
dium industry. The new-style pros
pectors are pushed on by special in
ducements offered by the Atomic Energy
Commission, for an increasing supply Of
the fashionable element is of vital i'm
portance for any future development.
Commission Gets Samples.
Prospectors are sending more than
1900 samples month to Atomic Energy
Commission laboratories. This is three
fold increase in year. Very rarely
sample indicates that the deposit might
be worth further exploitation with
available methods.
The new prospector doesn't need the
microscope eyes of the pick bearing
forty-nlner. He can cover quite large
areas in a few days, carrying only a
Geiger counter. of type approved by the
commission, which clicks like a tele-
graph when the mineral is present.
The counter is being made simpler,
lighter, more substantial and more SEN
sltive. It will be major tool of civilian
defense watchers in another war and
very likely will be supplied to every
soldier. Approximately $4,000 square
miles have been surveyed by automobile
in this fashion and there have been more
intensive surveys of nearly 1000 square
miles.
1t is not likely Atomic Energy Com
mission mineralogists believe, that
Workably rich deposits of carnotite are
confined to one small area in Colorado
and sooner or later, it is expected. dis
covery of notable mineral deposits will
result from the present surveys.
Uranium Not Rare.
At the best, carnotite is not an en-
tlrely satisfactory source of uranium,
but it is the only one considered likely
to be found in the United States The
geological structure of the country is
such that there is little likelihood of any
notable deposit of the black mineral
pitchblende, from which uranium first
was isolated and which is the source Of
the abundant supplies from northern
Canada, the Belgian Congo and the Joa-
chimsthal area of Czechoslovakia, which
is probably the chief Russian source.
Uranium itself, is not rare mineral,
considering the earth's crust as whole.
There is a lot more of it than of gold.
silver or even copper. But 1t tends TO
be very thinly distributed. ,
Meanwhile, the commission is making
an intensive effort to develop methods
of ore extraction and treatment which
will make it economically feasible to
utilize deposits in which there is less
than pound of uranium ton. Con-
siderable progress in treating carnotite
has been made at the Bureau of Mines,
the Massachusetts Institute of Tech
nology, the Carbide and Chemicals
Corp. and the Dow Chemical Co.. There
also Is the possibility of meeting part
of the cost of mining by recovery Of
other minerals which have no direct
connection with the atomic energy prof.
ects.
In this field, it is stressed, there is no
secrecy. Anybody who wants to go
prospecting through the old gold fields
will be given complete information on
how to locate and identify carnotite.