Show radi radium um from Carnot ites bulletin extraction and recovery of radium uranium and vanadium from by charles parsons R B moore S C lind and 0 C schaefer has just been issued by the bureau of mines this bulletin gives the results of tile the operative cooperative co work with the national radium institute which has been mining claims and studying the concentration of low grade ores res the present bulletin however describes only the methods of extracting radium from ore as carried out in the plant at denver the methods devised have proved highly successful they depend essentially upon the fact that strong hot nitric acid has a high gh solubility coefficient for radium and barium adrium sulphates this enables the carnote the ores to be treated directly with hot acid removing the values at a single operation the method follows r in brief j the ore pulverized to twenty besh esh is treated in a special earthenware 11 11 als ahing pot with 38 per cent nitric acid I 1 r 1 00 pounds of ore being u used sed to pounds per cent I INO UNO the acid is brought t 3 to boiling by means of steam passed th thou 4 ugh gli a glass tube and the ore gradually stirred in I heating is continued for afif fifteen teen minutes when the acid is filtered from the ore in a stoneware filter this is followed by a second treatment in the same leaching pot with somewhat weaker hot nitric acid after which the whole is washed with hot water nearly all of the uranium about 50 per cent of the vanadium and over 90 per cent of the radium are carried into solution by this method and separated from the bulky residues which are then discarded the acid solution is nearly neutralized with sodium hydroxide barium chloride and sulfuric acid added in proper quantities and held in settling tanks with conical bottoms for three days to settle out tile the radium barium sulphate the supernatant liquid is then sy phoned into an excess of boiling sodium carbonate solution to separate the uranium and vanadium from iron aluminum and calcium the radium barium sulphate left in the tank is run on to a stoneware filter filtered washed and dried the washings being also carbonate solution already added to the sodium mentioned the soluble sodium carbonate and the sodium a are e filter filtered I 1 ed from tile the iron calcium precipitate in filter filler presses presse s and run into uranium precipitation tanks the sodium carbonate is then nearly neutralized with nitric acid and sodium id added to complete precipitation of the uranium as sodium the filtrate containing the vanadium is carefully neutralized with nitric acid and iron sulphate added to precipitate vanadium as iron both the sodium and iron are separated from their solutions by means of filter presses the filtrate from the iron consists almost wholly of a solution of sodium nitrate containing of course a small amount of impurity this filtrate is evaporated sodium nitrate recovered and used again for the manu manufacture factura of nitric acid the radium barium sulphate without further treatment is reduced in large graphite crucibles cruci bles by charcoal a very efficient conversion 90 to 95 per cent into barium radium sulphide being obtained these are dissolved in hydrochloric 1 acid and the residue of unchanged sulphates retreat re treat ed the chloride solutions are crystallized in the plant in silica lined kettles care being taken to keep the solutions acid with hydrochloric dro acid as the separation of radium from barium is much more rapid under these conditions the concentrated chlorides carrying from four to ten ggs of radium per kilo are taken to the laboratory filtered from any insoluble impurities and crystallized again in strong acid solution until the bulk has been reduced to a small volume when they are converted into bromides tills this is done after first neutralizing with ammonia and precipitating with hydrogen sulphide to remove lead which always I 1 accumulates and which is not precipitated by hydrochloric acid from strong barium chloride solutions after removal of tile the lead the barium and radium are converted into carbonates by tile the addition of ammonium carbonate washed and dissolved in acid from tills this point on crys takes place in pure quartz dishes in solution strongly acid with acid the fractional crystallization of radium from the original chlorides to tile the finished product is neither tedious nor difficult but takes place rapidly when acid solutions are used and proper apparatus is available which will withstand their action the efficiency of the process is high in ill connection with tile the radium plant a nitric acid plant has been erected which produces over pounds of nitric acid per day owing to the recovery of sodium nitrate the cost of the nitric acid used has been very low averaging under tile the present cost for nitrate slightly less than 2 cents per pound to september 1 ggs of radium were produced in the form of sulphates and of element had been delivered in the form of bromide deliveries are continuing at the rate of to ings per month the cost of ra radium element figured on oil the basis of all the radium produced to august 1 which includes the higher costs of the earlier operations was per gram of radium element this includes the cost of ore 20 per cent plant amortization bureau of mines operation cooperation co and operating costs of all kinds including repairs the bulletin gives full details of operation including detailed drawings of the plant and half tone illus illustrations orations trat ions of the plant ana equipment tl the le radium produced is being used in the howard A kelly sanatorium at baltimore and the general memorial hospital new york city for the treatment or malignant growths it is cancer and other not for sale A copy of the bulletin may be obtained by addressing the director bureau of mines washington D C |