| Show american producers of colorado radium were prematurely frightened out of business in the opinion of secretary of commerce robert patterson lament and prospects are now encouraging for their reentry re entry into the industry in competition with the alleged belgian radium trust basing his conclusions on a report submitted by the united states bureau of mines which he had requested at the instance of congressman edward T taylor of colorado secretary lament believes it would be better to develop radium business by private enterprise rather than by the government two outstanding disclosures mark the bureau of mines report glrst is the fact that when a calr price for vanadium and uranium extracted from the same american ores from which radium Is scriv ed is considered radium can be recovered tor about 22 per gram as against the price of 70 now being charged by belgians the second Is that belgian congo deposits of high grade ore are neither as rich nor as extensive as popularly supposed and genuine opportunity exists for american producers to engage again in radium extraction he believes belgians cannot continue indefinitely to dominate the market in view of the encouraging prospects outlined in this report writes secretary lament to representative taylor can you not interest some of our colorado people in establishing a private industry to develop the business this would be much better than having the government go into it in his letter to taylor secretary lament a memorandum of the report of the mines bureau some of the main points are that the government manufactured radium in its denver experimental plant 1913 to 1017 for en averts cost of per gram but that then due credit Is given for pounds of canid wn oxide both actually recovered per gram of radium produced at a selling price of 2 per the net cost of radium extraction was only about per gram that since the advent of congo radium ore large quantities of camo alte are being treated tor vanadium aona radium being discarded in residues that this fact shows the entire cost of production is covered by vanadium value recent investigation by the bareau shows uranium and radium in also be recovered at a profit front the same ores or can at least be saved in such concentrated form as to be available when market conditions further refining that after seven years it has not been proved belgian deposits are rich or extensive enough either to satisfy indefinitely the world s demand or to preclude the chance of radium being extracted profitably from competing sources that the demand for radium Is on the increase and record sales for 1928 ll ready have been exceeded in the early months of 1929 it Is quite within the realms of possibility states secretary lament that american deposits can be exploited successfully |
