208 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



igneous rocks at Radium hill near Olary, and at Mount Painter in 

 the Flinders range. A few hundred tons of ore containing these 

 minerals have been mined by private or corporation interests. Most 

 of this has been sent to Woolwich, near Sydney, New South Wales, 

 or to England, for the extraction of the radium. Since the war 

 started no very active mining operations in such ores have been 

 carried on in the South Australian region. 



At Cooglegong in Western Australia, the uranium mineral fer- 

 gusonite and to a less extent the uranium mineral euxenite occur 

 in the surface detrital material of the region. At Wodgina the 

 minerals mackintoshite, thorogummite and pilbarite, all hydrous 

 silicates of uranium, thorium and lead, occur in an albite pegmatite 

 dike. 1 No important quantities of these Western Australia ores 

 have yet been produced. 



India and Africa. Radium and uranium minerals have been 

 reported in India and German East Africa, but no important quan- 

 tities have yet been produced. 



PROSPECT OF FUTURE DISCOVERIES OF RADIUM AND 



URANIUM ORES 



The prospect for increased discoveries of radium and uranium 

 minerals at the present time seems best in the carnotite regions of 

 Colorado and Utah. The workable deposits seem to be more or 

 less superficial, and perhaps no large quantity of ore may be found 

 in any one spot, yet the great extent of the region in which the for- 

 mations carrying carnotite occur, will supply an immense aggregate 

 amount of ore. 



The prospect for increased discoveries of uraninite, pitchblende 

 and other uranium minerals in Europe is possible, even though that 

 continent has already been well explored for them. Moreover, new 

 discoveries of different radium and uranium minerals may very likely 

 be made in still other parts of the United States than those men- 

 tioned, and in less explored parts of the world, especially certain 

 regions of South America, Australia, Asia and Africa. Many of 

 these minerals, especially pitchblende, have no very distinctive 

 features when first observed, and might readily be overlooked many 

 times before their true nature was discovered. Hence the possibilities 

 of future discoveries. 



1 Edward S. Simpson, Western Australia Geological Survey, Bui. 59, 1914. 

 The Rare Metals and Their Distribution in Western Australia," p. 53-54. 



