616 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVIII. No. 983 



radium as one of its products. In October, 

 1903, the first experimental plant was con-' 

 structed and in April, 1904, the first 17-ton 

 car of ore reached Buffalo from Richardson, 

 Utah. The company obtained a fair per- 

 centage of extraction, but the ore proved to 

 be too low grade and the Richardson de- 

 posits were abandoned. No radium in con- 

 centrated form was put upon the market, 

 although barium sulphate concentrates were 

 produced. 



The General Vanadium Company, which, 

 with the Radium Extraction Company, is a 

 subsidiary of the International Vanadium 

 Company of Liverpool, England, was 

 formed in 1909 and began work in 1910, 

 the same year that the Standard Chemical 

 Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., entered the 

 field. Since that time these two companies 

 have been engaged in mining carnotite. The 

 ores from the General Vanadium Company 

 have been shipped almost entirely abroad, 

 while the Standard Chemical Company has 

 shipped several hundreds of tons of carno- 

 tite to its works at Canonsburg, Pa. While 

 it was stated at the time of the advance 

 announcement of the bulletin to be issued 

 by the Bureau of Mines, that one American 

 company had actively entered into the pro- 

 duction of radium, no actual sale of Ameri- 

 can-produced radium could be authenti- 

 cated. Since that time, however, the Stand- 

 ard Chemical Company has entered the 

 American markets. 



Besides the American Rare Metals Com- 

 pany and the Standard Chemical Company, 

 a third company — the Radium Company of 

 America, with mines near Green River, 

 Utah — ^has undertaken the production of 

 radium in its plant at Sellersville, Pa. 

 There is, therefore, every reason to hope 

 that more and more of our ores will be 

 worked up at home. 



Besides the companies already men- 

 tioned, a number of independent operators 



mine and ship carnotite from the Paradox 

 region and for the main part send their 

 ores to Hamburg. Among the more promi- 

 nent of these may be mentioned : 



T. V. Curren, Placerville, Colo. 



W. L. Cummings, Placerville, Colo. 



0. B. Wilsmarth, Montrose, Colo. 



David Taylor, Salt Lake City, Utah. 

 The costs of mining, and especially of 

 transportation, are an important factor in 

 the marketing of carnotite. The Green 

 River deposits have a distinct advantage 

 over the Colorado deposits in this respect, 

 as they are nearer the railroad, but, as their 

 ores do not average so high in uranium, this 

 advantage is more apparent than real. The 

 present cost of mining, sorting and sacking 

 in the Paradox apparently vary from about 

 $28 to $40 per ton. To this must be added 

 an $18 to $20 hauling charge to Placer- 

 ville, and, in most instances, an additional 

 charge for burros from the mines to points 

 that can be reached by wagon. The freight 

 rate from Placerville to Hamburg, via 

 Galveston, is $14.50 per ton so that the 

 average cost at present to the miner laying 

 down his ore at the European markets 

 approximates $70 per ton. The selling 

 price varies with the uranium content, but 

 is by no means proportional thereto, since a 

 premium is always paid for rich ores. Very 

 recently, however, a decided improvement 

 has taken place and for 2 per cent, ore, the 

 price is now around $2.50 per pound for the 

 contained uranium oxide, with an allowance 

 of about 13 cents per pound for the vana- 

 dium oxide content, so that the 2 per cent, 

 ore will now bring in Hamburg about $95 

 per ton. One per cent, ore is now salable, 

 but unless this ore is taken from the dump, 

 so that the mining cost may be disregarded, 

 it will scarcely bear transportation charges 

 from the Paradox, although it is more than 

 probable that it wiU be soon shipped regu- 

 larly from the Utah field. 



