What is the black mineral that is the source of uranium and radium
"of radium Curie used the residues after extraction of uranium from pitchblende. The uranium had been extracted by dissolution in sulfuric acid leaving radium sulfate, which is similar to barium sulfate but even less soluble in the residues. The residues also contained rather substantial amounts of barium sulfate which thus acted as a carrier for the radium sulfate. The first steps of the radium extraction process involved boiling with sodium hydroxide followed by hydrochloric acid treatment to remove as much as possible of other compounds. The remaining residue was then treated with sodium carbonate to convert the barium sulfate into"
"is contained in coffinite deposits, which is significant because of uranium’s use in nuclear energy. Sedimentary deposits contain the most radioactive samples, as evidenced by the intensely radioactive coffinite found in the Colorado Plateau. Researchers at Harvard University, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), and several other institutions attempted unsuccessfully to synthesize coffinite in the mid-1950s after its initial discovery. In 1956, Hoekstra and Fuchs managed to create stable samples of synthetic coffinite. All of this research was conducted for the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Coffinite Coffinite is a uranium-bearing silicate mineral with formula: U(SiO)(OH). It occurs as black"
"Uraninite Uraninite, formerly pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO, but due to oxidation the mineral typically contains variable proportions of UO. Additionally, due to radioactive decay, the ore also contains oxides of lead and trace amounts of helium. It may also contain thorium and rare earth elements. Uraninite used to be known as pitchblende (from ""pitch"", because of its black color, and ""blende"", a term (otherwise meaning ""shade"" or ""screen"") used by German miners to denote minerals whose density suggested metal content, but whose exploitation, at the time they were"
"Euxenite Euxenite or euxenite-(Y) (a correct mineralogical name) is a brownish black mineral with a metallic luster. It contains calcium, niobium, tantalum, cerium, titanium, yttrium, and typically uranium and thorium, with some other metals. The chemical formula is: (Y,Ca,Ce,U,Th)(Nb,Ta,Ti)O. It is commonly partially amorphous due to radiation damage. Euxenite forms a continuous series with the titanium rich polycrase-(Y) having the following formula: (Y,Ca,Ce,U,Th)(Ti,Nb,Ta)O It was first described in 1870 and named for from the Greek (εύξεινος), ""hospitable"" or ""friendly to strangers"", in allusion to the many rare elements that it contains. It occurs in granite pegmatites and detrital black sands."
"fg/kg respectively), produced by the spontaneous fission of uranium-238. Francium can also be found in uraninite at 1 francium atom for every 1 × 10 uranium atoms in the ore as a result from the decay of actinium. Uraninite is a major ore of uranium. Some of the highest grade uranium ores in the world were found in the Shinkolobwe mine in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (the initial source for the Manhattan Project) and in the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. Another important source of pitchblende is at Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada,"
"in 1953. The deposits are roll fronts in fluvial sandstones of the Eocene Wasatch Formation and underlying Paleocene Fort Union Formation. The principal ore minerals are uraninite, coffinite, metatyuyamunite, and carnotite. Gangue minerals are calcite, gypsum, pyrite, iron oxide, and barite. Uranium was discovered in 1952 in Cretaceous sandstones of the Inyan Kara Group near its outcrop in Crook County, Wyoming, near the northeast edge of the Black Hills. Production began in 1953. Ore minerals are uraninite and coffinite in unoxidized sandstone, and carnotite and tyuyamunite in oxidized sandstone. Gangue minerals in unoxidized deposits are pyrite, marcasite, and calcite; in"
"Uranium Uranium is a chemical element with symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weakly radioactive because all isotopes of uranium are unstable, with half-lives varying between 159,200 years and 4.5 billion years. The most common isotopes in natural uranium are uranium-238 (which has 146 neutrons and accounts for over 99%) and uranium-235 (which has 143 neutrons). Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the primordially occurring elements. Its density is"
"Columbite Columbite, also called niobite, niobite-tantalite and columbate [(Fe, Mn)NbO], is a black mineral group that is an ore of niobium. It has a submetallic luster and a high density and is a niobate of iron and manganese. This mineral group was first found in Haddam, Connecticut, in the United States. It forms a series with the tantalum-dominant analogue ferrotantalite and one with the manganese-dominant analogue manganocolumbite. The iron-rich member of the columbite group is ferrocolumbite. Some tin and tungsten may be present in the mineral. Yttrocolumbite is the yttrium-rich columbite with the formula (Y,U,Fe)(Nb,Ta)O. It is a radioactive mineral"
"Curie used pitchblende, processing tons of it herself, as the source material for her isolation of radium in 1898. Uraninite also always contains small amounts of the lead isotopes Pb and Pb, the end products of the decay series of the uranium isotopes U and U respectively. Small amounts of helium are also present in uraninite as a result of alpha decay. Helium was first found on Earth in uraninite after having been discovered spectroscopically in the Sun's atmosphere. The extremely rare elements technetium and promethium can be found in uraninite in very small quantities (about 200 pg/kg and 4"
"and ethics Tantalite The mineral group tantalite [(Fe, Mn)TaO] is the primary source of the chemical element tantalum. It is chemically similar to ""columbite"", and the two are often grouped together as a semi-singular mineral called coltan or ""columbite-tantalite"" in many mineral guides. However, tantalite has a much greater specific gravity than columbite (8.0+ compared to columbite's 5.2). Iron-rich tantalite is the mineral tantalite-(Fe) or ""ferrotantalite"" and manganese-rich is tantalite-(Mn) or ""manganotantalite"". Tantalite is also very close to ""tapiolite"". Those minerals have same chemical composition, but different crystal symmetry orthorhombic for tantalite and tetragonal for tapiolite. Tantalite is black to"
"Tyuyamunite Tyuyamunite (pronounced tuh-YOO-ya-moon-ite) is a very rare uranium mineral with formula Ca(UO)VO·(5-8)HO. It is a member of the carnotite group. It is a bright, canary-yellow color because of its high uranium content. Also, because of tyuyamunite's high uranium content, it is radioactive. It was named by Konstantin Avtonomovich Nenadkevich, in 1912, after its type locality, Tyuya-Muyun, Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan. Tyuyamunite is formed by the weathering of uraninite, a uranium-bearing mineral. Tyuyamunite, being a hydrous mineral, contains water. Yet when it is exposed to the atmosphere it loses its water. This process changes tyuyamunite into a different mineral known as"
"former mining and milling areas. The head office of SDAG Wismut / Wismut GmbH is in Chemnitz-Siegmar. The Ore Mountains (; ) in southern East Germany at the border with the Czech Republic are closely connected to the history of uranium exploitation. The metal was discovered in a sample from a silver mine in the mountain range, and uranium was produced first as a by-product in the early 19th century and later as a main product from the 1890s on. The chemists Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the elements Radium and Polonium in pitchblende tailings from a Czech uranium mine"
"starting a decay chain named the thorium series that ends at stable Pb. In the universe, thorium and uranium are the only two radioactive elements that still occur naturally in large quantities as primordial elements. It is estimated to be over three times more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust, and is chiefly refined from monazite sands as a by-product of extracting rare-earth metals. Thorium was discovered in 1829 by the Norwegian amateur mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Its first applications"
"Radium Radium is a chemical element with symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rather than oxygen) on exposure to air, forming a black surface layer of radium nitride (RaN). All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226, which has a half-life of 1600 years and decays into radon gas (specifically the isotope radon-222). When radium decays, ionizing radiation is a product, which can excite fluorescent"
"Znucalite Znucalite or CaZn(UO)(CO)(OH)·4(HO) is a rare, radioactive, white to pale cream colored uranium-containing carbonate mineral, hydrated calcium zinc uranyl carbonate hydroxide. Znucalite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, often forming aggregates or crusts, and is found as a rare secondary species in carbonate-hosted (meaning it is mined from carbonate containing formations such as limestone) polymetallic veins, and nearby oxidizing uranium veins; on dump material and coating mine walls, apparently of post-mine origin. It fluoresces yellow-green under UV light. It was first described in 1989, after being discovered in Lill Mine, Černojamské deposit (Black pits deposit) in the Czech Republic. It"
"found in uranium and thorium ores, where the isotope francium-223 continually forms and decays. As little as 20–30 g (one ounce) exists at any given time throughout the Earth's crust; the other isotopes are entirely synthetic. The largest amount produced in the laboratory was a cluster of more than 300,000 atoms. Radium is a chemical element with atomic number 88, represented by the symbol Ra. Radium is an almost pure-white alkaline earth metal, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, becoming black in color. All isotopes of radium are highly radioactive, with the most stable isotope being radium-226, which"
"and 2005. Most uranium ore in the United States comes from deposits in sandstone, which tend to be of lower grade than those of Australia and Canada. Because of the lower grade, many uranium deposits in the United States became uneconomic when the price of uranium declined sharply in the 1980s. Today nearly all uranium operations in the United States are In-situ leach. Regular production of uranium-bearing ore in the United States began in 1898 with the mining of carnotite-bearing sandstones of the Colorado Plateau in Colorado and Utah, for their vanadium content. The discovery of radium by Marie Curie,"
"magnesite, and dolomite. Common calcium-containing minerals are chalk, limestone, gypsum, and anhydrite. Strontium is the fifteenth-most-abundant element in the Earth's crust. The principal minerals are celestite and strontianite. Barium is slightly less common, much of it in the mineral barite. Radium, being a decay product of uranium, is found in all uranium-bearing ores. Due to its relatively short half-life, radium from the Earth's early history has decayed, and present-day samples have all come from the much slower decay of uranium. Most beryllium is extracted from beryllium hydroxide. One production method is sintering, done by mixing beryl, sodium fluorosilicate, and soda"
"support a neutron-mediated chain reaction). Uranium, thorium, and potassium are the main elements contributing to natural terrestrial radioactivity. Uranium has the highest atomic weight of the naturally occurring elements and is approximately 70% denser than lead, but not as dense as tungsten, gold, platinum, iridium, or osmium. It is always found combined with other elements. Along with all elements having atomic weights higher than that of iron, it is only naturally formed in supernova explosions. The primary uranium ore mineral is uraninite (UO) (previously known as pitchblende). A range of other uranium minerals can be found in various deposits. These"
"of a mixture of barium chloride and ammonium chloride. While studying uraninite, on 21 December 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered that, even after uranium had decayed, the material created was still radioactive. The material behaved somewhat similarly to barium compounds, although some properties, such as the color of the flame test and spectral lines, were much different. They announced the discovery of a new element on 26 December 1898 to the French Academy of Sciences. Radium was named in 1899 from the word ""radius"", meaning ""ray"", as radium emitted power in the form of rays. Beryllium occurs in the"
"produced nuclear fallout equivalent to one third of the global total that had been produced up to that time. The decay chain of U is commonly called the ""radium series"" (sometimes ""uranium series""). Beginning with naturally occurring uranium-238, this series includes the following elements: astatine, bismuth, lead, polonium, protactinium, radium, radon, thallium, and thorium. All are present, at least transiently, in any uranium-containing sample, whether metal, compound, or mineral. The decay proceeds as: The mean lifetime of U is 1.41 seconds divided by 0.693 (or multiplied by 1.443), i.e. ca. 2 seconds, so 1 mole of U emits 3 alpha"
"include carnotite, tyuyamunite, torbernite and autunite. The davidite-brannerite-absite type uranium titanates, and the euxenite-fergusonite-samarskite group are other uranium minerals. A large variety of secondary uranium minerals are known, many of which are brilliantly coloured and fluorescent. The most common are gummite, autunite (with calcium), saleeite (magnesium) and torbernite (with copper); and hydrated uranium silicates such as coffinite, uranophane (with calcium) and sklodowskite (magnesium). There are several themes of uranium ore deposit formation, which are caused by geological and chemical features of rocks and the element uranium. The basic themes of uranium ore genesis are host mineralogy, reduction-oxidation potential, and porosity."
"Marcellus also contains uranium, and the radioactive decay of the uranium-238 (U) makes it a source rock for radioactive radon gas (Rn). Measured total organic content of the Marcellus Formation ranges from less than 1% in eastern New York, to over 11% in the central part of the state, and the shale may contain enough carbon to support combustion. The more organic-rich black shales can be bituminous, but are too old to contain bituminous coal formed from land plants. In petroleum geology, these black shales are an important source rock that filled conventional petroleum reservoirs in overlying formations, are an"
"a black powder, which he thought was the newly discovered metal itself (in fact, that powder was an oxide of uranium). He named the newly discovered element after the planet Uranus (named after the primordial Greek god of the sky), which had been discovered eight years earlier by William Herschel. In 1841, Eugène-Melchior Péligot, Professor of Analytical Chemistry at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (Central School of Arts and Manufactures) in Paris, isolated the first sample of uranium metal by heating uranium tetrachloride with potassium. Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by using uranium in 1896. Becquerel made the discovery"
"of uranium is thought to be the Oligocene Wall Mountain Tuff. In December 2006, the Australian company Black Range Minerals bought rights to mine the Taylor Ranch property, which the company describes as a 30-million pound uranium orebody that had been discovered in the late 1970s, but abandoned because of low uranium prices. The company plans an extensive drilling program in 2008 to delineate the orebody. Relatively small amounts of uranium ore have been mined from the Dakota Sandstone along the western edge of the Denver Basin. The Mann mine, near Morrison, Colorado, produced 16,000 pounds (7.1 metric tons) of"
"CAD. Jackson is known to have composed several other paintings during his many visits to Port Radium. It was purchased by a private owner, whose estate donated it to the National Gallery of Canada in 1939. Art historian John O'brian, an expert on Jackson's work, said he had been unaware of the existence of the painting. Extra interest in the painting was triggered by the mine being the prime source of Uranium for the atomic bomb used in World War II. Radium Mine Radium Mine is the title of a painting made by Canadian artist A.Y. Jackson when he visited"
"metatyuyamunite Ca(UO)(VO)·3-5HO Tyuyamunite Tyuyamunite (pronounced tuh-YOO-ya-moon-ite) is a very rare uranium mineral with formula Ca(UO)VO·(5-8)HO. It is a member of the carnotite group. It is a bright, canary-yellow color because of its high uranium content. Also, because of tyuyamunite's high uranium content, it is radioactive. It was named by Konstantin Avtonomovich Nenadkevich, in 1912, after its type locality, Tyuya-Muyun, Fergana Valley, Kyrgyzstan. Tyuyamunite is formed by the weathering of uraninite, a uranium-bearing mineral. Tyuyamunite, being a hydrous mineral, contains water. Yet when it is exposed to the atmosphere it loses its water. This process changes tyuyamunite into a different mineral"
"a yellow pigment. In the United States, the first radium/uranium ore was discovered in 1871 in gold mines near Central City, Colorado. This district produced about 50 tons of high grade ore between 1871 and 1895. However, most American uranium ore before World War II came from vanadium deposits on the Colorado Plateau of Utah and Colorado. In Cornwall, the South Terras Mine near St. Stephen opened for uranium production in 1873, and produced about 175 tons of ore before 1900. Other early uranium mining occurred in Autunois in France's Massif Central, Oberpfalz in Bavaria, and Billingen in Sweden. The"
"to investigate. Marie Curie began her investigations by testing a uranium ore called pitchblende with an electrometer. She discovered it was four times more radioactive than pure uranium, and wondered if this was due to the presence of an even more radioactive element in the pitchblende. Curie began stockpiling tonnes of pitchblende, then in the most basic of workshops with primitive equipment she undertook a multitude of complex and dangerous procedures in an attempt to isolate this new element. In the event, Curie discovered two new elements, polonium named after her native Poland and radium. Whilst these were naturally occurring"
"was formed by remobilsation of uranium already enriched in the black shales by synsedimentary processes. Remobilsation was caused by hydrothermal and supergene processes leading to the further enrichment of uranium. The background uranium content in the black shales is 40 to 60 ppm. Like the major vein-style uranium deposits in the western Ore Mountains, the Ronneburg deposit is located on the Gera-Jachymov fault zone, which is called the Crimmitschau fault zone in this particular area. The black shales also contain high amounts of sulfides (marcasite, pyrite) and carbon. Wismut tested several different methods to mine this deposit in the 1950s"
"Thorite Thorite, (Th,U)SiO, is a rare nesosilicate of thorium that crystallizes in the tetragonal system and is isomorphous with zircon and hafnon. It is the most common mineral of thorium and is nearly always strongly radioactive. It was named in 1829 to reflect its thorium content. Thorite was discovered in 1828 on the island of Løvøya, Norway, by the vicar and mineralogist, Hans Morten Thrane Esmark, who sent the first specimens of this black mineral to his father, Jens Esmark, who was a professor of mineralogy and geology. Specimens of thorite generally come from igneous pegmatites and volcanic extrusive rocks,"
"the (4""n"" + 2) decay chain of uranium-238 with a half-life of over a millennium: it makes up almost all of natural radium. Its immediate decay product is the dense radioactive noble gas radon, which is responsible for much of the danger of environmental radium. It is 2.7 million times more radioactive than the same molar amount of natural uranium (mostly uranium-238), due to its proportionally shorter half-life. A sample of radium metal maintains itself at a higher temperature than its surroundings because of the radiation it emits – alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays. More specifically, natural radium"
"naturally from the ground and from some building materials all over the world, wherever traces of uranium or thorium can be found, and particularly in regions with soils containing granite or shale, which have a higher concentration of uranium. Every square mile of surface soil, to a depth of 6 inches (2.6 km to a depth of 15 cm), contains approximately 1 gram of radium, which releases radon in small amounts to the atmosphere Sand used in making concrete is the major source of radon in buildings. On a global scale, it is estimated that 2,400 million curies (91 TBq)"