EXTRACTION OF RADIUM FROM THE OLARY ORES. 145 



EXTRACTION OF RADIUM from the OLARY ORES. 

 By S. Radcliff. 



[Read before the Royal Society of N. 8. Wales, October 1, 191S.'] 



Introduction. 

 In May of the year 1906 a prospector forwarded some 

 pieces of a dense dark coloured mineral, carrying small 

 amounts of a yellow incrustation in the surface crevices, 

 to Adelaide for examination. Mr. W. S. Ohapman, the 

 Government Assayer, identified the yellow substance as 

 carnotite, a vanadate of uranium and potassium. He found 

 the material to contain 60 per cent, of uranium oxide and 

 a considerable amount of vanadic oxide. 



The locality from which the ore was obtained was shortly 

 afterwards visited by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, then Govern- 

 ment Geologist of South Australia. He stated: "The ore 

 occurs as yellow and greenish-yellow incrustations and 

 powder on the faces, joints, and cavities of a lode formation, 

 which consists of magnetic titaniferous iron, magnetite, 

 etc., and quartz in association with black mica 1 (biotite). 



Dr. Mawson subsequently published an account of a 

 mineralogical examination of the lode-stuff and came to 

 the conclusion that it contained several new minerals. 2 



Some years later a block of the ore, weighing about 161bs., 

 was forwarded to the Imperial Institute. A detailed 

 mineralogical and chemical examination was there made 

 of the material by Messrs. T. Crook and G. S. Blake. 3 



1 Record of Mines of S. Australia, 4th edition, Adelaide, 1908, p. 361. 



2 D. Mawson, Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust. 1906, Vol. xxx, p. 188. 



3 D. Crook, f.g.s., Gr. S. Blake, d.sc, p.c.s., Mineralogical Mag. March 

 1910, Vol. xv, No. 77, pp. 271-284. 



J— October 1, 1913. 



