Abstract
IN Sands, Clays and Minerals of June 1935, published by the Westmoor Laboratory, Chatteris, England, Dr. H. S. Spence, of the Canadian Department of Mines, gives an authoritative and well-illustrated account of the discovery, occurrence and exploitation of the pitchblende deposits found by Gilbert Labine in 1930 on the eastern shore of Great Bear Lake. Work to date has demonstrated the existence of extremely rich ore in three veins. Three months' operation of the Eldorado Company's mill showed that the raw material is of exceptionally high grade, the best being equivalent to a radium content of one gram per 6J tons. Occurrences of native silver add to the value of the deposits, some of the ore assaying up to 9,000 oz. of silver per ton. In veins 1 and 3 and in part of vein 2 the pitchblende was originally deposited in botryoidal crusts which were later brecciated and re-cemented by quartz. In the other part of vein 2 the gangue material is not silica, but carbonates of manganese, iron and lime, together with barytes. It is this section of vein 2 which is characterised by native silver, in flakes and leaves occurring in both pitchblende and gangue.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Radium Deposits in North-West Canada. Nature 136, 510 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136510a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136510a0