28 T. H. LABY. 



On a PITCHBLENDE PROBABLY OCCURRING IN 

 NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By T. H. Laby, b.a., Research Student of Emmanuel 

 College, Cambridge, Joule Student of the Royal Society, 

 formerly Exhibition of 1851, Research Scholar of the 

 University of Sydney. 



[Communicated by F. B. Guthrie, f.i.c, f.c.s.] 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, June 2, 1909.'] 



Late in the year 1904, the writer received a mineral from 

 Mr. G. W. Card, a.r.s.m., to test for radio-activity. It 

 was found to be so strongly radio-active that the activity 

 could only be explained if radium were present in it. The 

 mineral had been received with a number of others by Mr. 

 Bennett of Newcastle, New South Wales, from his pros- 

 pector. Some time elapsed between its receipt and Mr. 

 Bennett's identification of it as a uranium mineral. This 

 interval was sufficiently long to make the exact place 

 where the specimen was found uncertain, but the most 

 probable place was the New England District of New South 

 Wales. Mr. Bennett himself prospected that district to 

 rediscover the mineral, but I understand failed to do so. 



Recently Mr. C. Poulot, a French metallurgist, saw six tons of 

 what he is convinced is the same ore at a works in Germany. He 

 was informed that it had been shipped from Melbourne as silver 

 ore, and that two tons of good pitchblende had been obtained from 

 it in addition to sulphides. If it is true that the ore was shipped 

 from Melbourne, it does not seem probable that it was procured 

 from New England. 



