The uranium deposits of Colorado and Utah are being depleted rapidly by foreign exploitation and it would seem almost a patriotic duty to develop an industry to retain the radium in America. So large a demand for radium has sprung up, owing to publication, by unquestioned authority, of statements as to its curative power in certain forms of cancer, that there are seemingly no supplies for immediate delivery.

Quoted present (January, 1914) prices for radium bromide, chloride, or sulphate for future delivery are as follows: Purity, 1 to 60 per cent, $120 per mg. metallic radium; 60 to 75 per cent, $140 per mg. metallic radium; 75 to 90 per cent, $160 per mg. metallic radium. At $120 per mg. for radium metal in salts of 60 per cent purity, the value of the radium in American ores in 1912 amounts to a little more than $790,000 and in 1913 to about $1,050,000, so that mining and separation of the ore can be considered only as one of our smaller industries even if the ore be treated at home. But the fact should be noted that a large part of this radium went into foreign hands and opened up to foreign medicine and science opportunities for investigation and treatment of malignant disease that have been denied to our own people except by repurchasing manufactured radium compounds at almost prohibitive prices.

France, Austria, England, and Germany have their radium institutes fostered by their Governments or by philanthropic foundations. During the last year extensive appropriations have been made abroad for the purchase of radium and mesothorium, showing the great demand that has arisen for these materials in the treatment of malignant disease. Some of these purchases have been made by Government appropriation and some by public subscription. The following list may be of interest.

Appropriations by German cities for purchase of radium.

The list is incomplete as Prussia has appropriated 370,000 marks for the purchase of 1 gram of radium, and many German cities of less than 80,000 inhabitants have also made appropriations and are attempting to procure radium for the treatment of cancerous growths.

In this country the National Radium Institute has been founded by Dr. Howard A. Kelly, of Baltimore and Dr. James Douglas of New York City, and a cooperative agreement with the National Radium Institute and the Bureau of Mines has been announced. Under this agreement the bureau obtains the opportunity of a scientific and technologic study of the mining and concentration of carnotite ores and of the most efficient methods of obtaining radium, vanadium, and uranium therefrom, with a view to increased efficiency and the prevention of waste.

A plant is already under construction at Denver, Colo., and the lease of 16 claims containing carnotite obtained from the Crucible Steel Mining & Milling Co. Over 100 tons of high-grade carnotite is already ground and ready for treatment as soon as the plant is completed. Concentration experiments will be conducted and if successful will be applied to reducing wastes now taking place. Within a year mill operations should make results certain and the extraction of ore and production of radium will be continued on a larger scale. All processes, details of apparatus and plant, and general information gained will be published for the benefit of the people. The institute has been formed for the special purpose of procuring enough radium to conduct extensive experiments in radium therapy with special reference to the curing of cancer; also it expects to conduct experiments in connection with the physical characteristics and chemical effects of radium rays. Hospital facilities in Boston and New York are already supplied.

The activities of the institute are sure to be of benefit to the prospector and miner by providing a greater demand for his already rare ore; to the plant operator by developing methods and by creating a larger market for his product; and to the people by assisting and possibly by succeeding in controlling the most malignant of diseases. The radium produced is intended for the institute's own use and will consequently remain at home.

C. L. PARSONS,

Chief, Division of Mineral Technology.

A PRELIMINARY REPORT ON URANIUM, RADİUM, AND

VANADIUM.

By RICHARD B. MOORE and KARL L. KITHIL.

INTRODUCTION.

This bulletin presents a summary of available information regarding the sources of uranium, radium, and vanadium, the methods used in treating the ores, and the uses of the finished products. In particular the paper describes the ores found in the United States, giving especial attention to those characteristics of the ores and the conditions of their occurrence that affect mining and treatment.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

In the preparation of this bulletin a number of persons rendered assistance by furnishing information and by making it possible for us to visit the carnotite deposits in western Colorado and eastern Utah at a time of the year when without this assistance it would have been difficult to obtain satisfactory results. We desire to express our thanks to the following persons: Henry Hall, W. L. Cummings, T. V. Curran, K. D. Hequembourg, David Taylor, H. C. Brown, Forbes Rickard, George W. Alsdorf, Dr. Herman Fleck, Orr J. Adams, C. S. Cherrington, Newt. Stewart, O. B. Willmarth, Angus Cameron, George A. Head, and Lorimer Bros.

In addition, we also wish to express our cordial thanks to Charles F. Whittemore for a number of chemical analyses made by him and for other valuable assistance.

THE CARNOTITE DEPOSITS OF COLORADO AND UTAH.

DESCRIPTION OF DEPOSITS.

Up to the present the carnotite deposits of Colorado and Utah have excited little interest outside of those two States, although they are the most important uranium-bearing deposits known in the world. During the fall of 1912 the authors were able to visit the more important localities, which are scattered over a considerable area, as shown

by the accompanying map (Pl. I). A description of the deposits visited follows:

COAL CREEK, COLO.

The Coal Creek deposits of carnotite are 14 miles northeast of Meeker, the county seat of Rio Blanco County, Colo. The claims, 10 in number, are reached by wagon road and lie east of Spurlock Ranch, just beyond Henry Ranch. Little more than prospect work has been done and it is difficult to estimate the extent of the deposits.

The carnotite occurs in the lower bed of a group of beds of massive white sandstone that underlies the Dakota sandstone (conglomerate). The outcrops are on or near the hogback ridge that is formed by the lowest and most massive bed. For further details of the geology, the reader is referred to Gale's work."

On the Caywood claims nine prospect pits were examined, of which several show no signs of carnotite. No. 1 shows none; in No. 2, about 1,000 feet above Coal Creek and 300 feet higher than No. 1, is an exposure of sandstone colored a light green in streaks and layers for a thickness of about 6 feet from the top; the entire rock is somewhat impregnated with the color, which is due to chromium. In this pit no carnotite ore is exposed. Some petrified wood was found at its bottom, also showing chromium stains.

The next pit, No. 3, just below No. 2, and southwest of it on the same hill, contains a petrified tree about 12 inches in diameter lying halfway across the pit. Cracks and interstices in this tree, which is rusty brown, are filled with powdery yellow carnotite. The sandstone for 1 foot below the tree carries good ore. Under the grass roots the sandstone is soft and rather heavily impregnated with carnotite. Farther below, in the white sandstone, a brownish-yellow streak occurs, underlying which is a somewhat richer yellow material a few inches in thickness. On the right side of the pit, near the bottom, is a brownish-colored rock containing vanadium.

About 15 feet northwest from pit No. 3 is another opening in which is exposed a part of the petrified tree that is exposed in pit No. 3. Interstices in the tree, as in pit No. 3, are filled with rich yellow carnotite. In this prospect hole no other signs of carnotite were observed. The next pit, No. 5, about 12 feet from the one just described, shows only some yellow-colored sandstone at its mouth. In the sandstone below is a layer of black to dark-brown, much decomposed, material, rich in vanadium.

East and about 1,000 feet higher up on the ridge, at an elevation of about 9,500 feet, and near the top of the highest peak of the mountain, are the so-called Elkhorn claims. There are two prospect pits, in the first of which, at a depth of 9 feet measured from the

a Gale, H. S., Carnotite in Rio Blanco County, Colo.: U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 315, 1907, pp. 110–117.