High-level Radioactive Minerals

New-agers take note: unlike that quartz crystal on your necklace...these crystals really do radiate invisible waves of energy! (And without a doubt, many ills in the world would be cured if certain folks started wearing big chunks of uraninite.)

Top row, left to right: Uranophane, Chalk Mtn. Quarry, Spruce Pine, NC. Pitchblende, Mi Vida Mine, San Juan Co., UT. Chinle Formation fossils, Mi Vida Mine.

Middle row, left to right: Tyuyamunite / carnotite, Poison Canyon, McKinley Co., NM. Pitchblende / torbernite, South Terras Mine, Cornwall, UK. Uraninite, Shinkolobwe Mine, Katanga, Congo (DRC). Uraninite / gummite / uranophane, Ruggles Mine, Grafton, NH.

Bottom row, left to right: Ellsworthite (uranpyrochlore), Bancroft District, Ontario. Monazite sands, piedmont of North Carolina. Uraninite / uranophane, Deer Park Mine, Mitchell Co., NC.

Notes on some of these minerals and their localities: The most radioactive piece in this display is the 170 g. specimen from Katanga, which is nearly pure UO2 with a small amount of orange / yellow surface oxides and hydroxides of higher oxidation state. I do not have an instrument that adequately measures the high beta and gamma dose rates on the specimen's surface, but gamma exposure is likely in the range of 50-100 mR / hr. The mines of the Katanga Province in the DRC were of great historical importance to early nuclear research in the United States in that they provided the nation's uranium until Canadian sources could be exploited. CP-1 and the Clinton Pile (graphite reactor at Oak Ridge, TN) were fueled by Shinkolobwe uranium. Civil unrest in the DRC has since made Shinkolobwe inaccessible, and unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that new specimens will come from the region in the near future. Reports have surfaced that have implicated North Korea and Iraq in schemes to re-open Shinkolobwe to obtain uranium, but the lack of infrastructure and security at what remains of the mine would have been an insurmountable impediment to any such effort.

The Mi Vida Mine is famous for sitting in the largest high-grade uranium ore body ever discovered in the United States. Its success made an overnight millionaire out of unemployed prospector Charlie Steen in 1952, unleashed a massive "uranium boom" on the Colorado Plateau, and turned tiny Moab, UT into "the uranium capital of the world." The mine closed in the 1980s, but not for lack of high-grade uranium ore, which can still be found on the abandoned property. The problem was simply that by that time, demand no longer existed for domestic uranium. The mine is NOT properly indicated on USGS topographical maps, and those with a serious interest in collecting on the premeses are encouraged to contact Mel Stairs to arrange trip (email me for his info).

The Ruggles Mine in Grafton, NH is famous for its pegmatite that is full of rare and unusual minerals. The mine is open to collectors for a fee now, but today's visitors are highly unlikely to find anything like the boiling-hot slab of uraninite displayed above. This slab comes from an academic collection. What surprises me is that someone actually had it cut and polished, an effort that would have resulted in considerable radiological contamination!

The South Terras Mine in Cornwall was mined for numerous metals, including radium for Marie Curie's research. Now it is abandoned and noted for having exceedingly dangerous radon concentrations. The specimen shown above is called "green jim" locally. It is a dense, electrically conductive mixture of pitchblende and torbernite and probably a variety of other heavy metal oxides or sulfides, and is physically unspectacular. But it sure makes a Geiger counter sing beautifully.

The Spruce Pine region of North Carolina is home to numerous uranium-bearing pegmatite intrusions. The pegmatites have been mined for feldspar, mica, precious beryls, and lepidolite; uranium has never been commercially recovered. But collectors will find an abundance of green torbernite, crusty yellow uranophane, and if lucky, a bit of uraninite or greenish uraniferous hyalite opal. A favored spot for aquamarine beryl that also provides the occasional nice bit of torbernite is the Ray Mica Mine near Burnsville. I have found uraninite at the Deer Park Mine near Penland. Unbelievably, a housing development is being built right on top of Deer Park today. I witnessed sand (!) being dumped into open mine shafts to plug them up, so the land can be developed. Not only are the future homeowners going to live in a radon hellhole, but they are going to be sited near unstable, flooded, and open underground workings from the mine (sorry, that sand trick ain't gonna work). The Chalk Mountain Quarry is noted for its fine uranophane and hyalite, but due to a rather difficult manager, it is off limits to most rockhounds. The Pine Mountain Quarry, while not as nicely endowed mineralogically, is far more generous to mineral clubs.