OCR Text |
Show tho refuse heaps at the mines of Cornwall. Corn-wall. The particular mine in which tho existence of radium has been found is in the SL Austell district, but St. Ives is sharing the public attention by reason of the investigations which have been made for some timo pa3t. At present the Cornish mines are fitted with machinery for dealing with the residium as ore. but not for dressing dress-ing it, and persons are engaged to crush It into powder. Their market thus far has been for uranium oxide, whloh has been sept, to Germany, where It is chemically treated to produce pro-duce sodium u rani to for the colored giasa and porcelain trade, and nitrate of uranium for tho photographic trade. Hitherto the tailings from the mines j have been regarded as useless, but it' has recently been discovered that tho residium is the mother of radium. Tho Cornish company contemplates the establishment of works for tho treatment of pitchblende at Trenwlth mine, near St. Ives, and in the St. Agnes district. It Is asserted that the works will afford employment to some 400 workmen, and will constitute consti-tute a new Industry of considerable benefit to the county; URANIUM AND RADIUM. A few years ago no one had heard of uranium except as a very rare mot-al, mot-al, and radium had not been discovered. discover-ed. Now mines of uranium ores aro being opened in different parts of tho world, and from those ores a number of metals aro being extracted, the most valuable of which is radium, A report from Consul Joseph G. Stephens, Steph-ens, of Plymouth, England, states that considerable interest Is manifested throughout England in tho announcement announce-ment of the existence in large quantities quan-tities In Cornwall of the material known as pitchblende, from which radium ra-dium is produced after tho extraction of uranium. Tho consul describes tho sources of the valuable article and probability of securing further supplies. sup-plies. Pitchblende ore is largely found in the Erzgeblrge, in Bohemia, and In Cornwall, and so valuable are such finds of pitchblende that the Austrian government, exercising a legitimate right, has prohibited further export from that country. The world, therefore, there-fore, must be searched for new sources of supply, and Cornwall appears likely like-ly to furnish the deficiency. Portugal Portu-gal has also been mentioned as a likely field. The process of extraction is extremely ex-tremely tedious and expensive, tons of pitchblende (oxide of uranium) yielding only the minutest quantities of tho precious mineral. However, the fact that a pound of radium Is theoretically worth over $30,000,000 Is an Inducement to produce it, and science sci-ence makes its production a necessity. neces-sity. The total world production of radium ra-dium has not yet equaled one gram. It Is known that radium is widely disseminated throughout the earth's crust, but the occurrence of radio-active minerals in a formation sufllciontly permancnt to render mining at any depth a payiug proposition Is still very Tare. Radium to be appreciably cheaper must be derived from uranium minerals, miner-als, when obtainable in large quantities quan-tities from surface deposits at little oxpenj?. Even where so found tho cost of its separation from other minerals min-erals and waste is enormous. Great 1ntfrpFt therefore naturally attaches to |