The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, February 2, 1932, Page 6

HUNIDAUNE UAL TUTE Where rich radium ore lies rea of vast deposits of pitchblende ore. ADIUMI! This cry of discovery is being echoed in geological and min- ing circles these days, recalling the thrilling days of gold rushes in the Yukon and California. For an inky black mineral has been spotted from a rushing airplane in the Canadian wilder- ness near the Arctic Ocean. In this pitchblende ore lies hidden more radium than now is at work in the world, treating cancer, unraveling the inner structure of atoms and peering into solid steel to discover hidden flaws. Over 50,000 times more precious than gold is radium, wonder element discovered by the Curies. It is worth $1,500,000 an ounce; gold is worth $27.56 an avoirdupois ounce. The new discovery of radium ore in Can- ada promises to break the radium monopoly of the Belgian Congo, just as the development of the African deposits broke the American mo- nopoly after the war. This result was hardly anticipated by the lone prospector who set out in 1929 for the vast cold, barren wastes around the Great Bear Lake, 800 miles from the nearest railroad. Indeed, radium was not in his mind at all. He knew, of course, that this part of Canada contained a wealth of valuable minerals, but that vast deposits of radium would be found did not occur to him. # PeeneReane 28gnzs eorsgss es Os rs to be. By oa one ore SOUT TTT TTT (tas Ho hopes of mineral treasures in this wil- derness were entertained by a number of adventurous spirits. Airplanes, radios and other paraphernalia of modern science were employed in this geological treasure hunt. Two companies, the Dominion Explorers Limited and the Northern Aerial Minerals Ex- ploration Company, undeterred by the armchair experts who scoffed at the idea of profitably bringing minerals from the back of beyond, have been courageously scouring this country since 1929. They have been rewarded by the finding of rich and substantial de- posits of copper ore, good enough to repay the long haul back to civilization. Gilbert LaBine, .Canadian mining engineer, fascinated too by this enig- matic frontier, decided to adventure on his own. In the summer of 1929 he flew to Great Bear Lake in the North- west Territories with Leigh Brintnell. chief of the Western Canada Airways. Flying over the eastern shore of the lake, he observed, in the region of Hunter Bay and Echo Bay, that the ground was broken up by a great red slash of “gozzan,” a rusty stain 200 feet wide caused by iron ore. They landed and soon found a large vein of quartz. This quartz vein was about 400 to 500 feet wide and, when further in- vestigated, proved to be 80 miles long. Parallel with it were found copper, co- balt and silver ores. Along the shore at Hunter Bay on Great Bear Lake were lying immense boulders, some of them as much as 60 tons in weight. They were practically pure copper ore. This looked hopeful. LaBine staked claims and with his companion turned south wondering if, perhaps, the quartz contained some gold, UAT vctasuuinte-- pee other companies were operating by airplane only a few miles away. Unwilling to let a possible tortune slip out of his hands, LaBine did not wait for the thaw before returning. At the height of the next winter, in February, with nature in her unkindest mood, he returned to Great Bear Lake again by plane. Landing, and pushing ahead alone on snow- shees, he prospected most of the eastern shore of the lake. There was no gold, as far as he could see; but after four months he found on a promontory, near where the huge quartz vein ran into the lake, a dull, black, lusterless rock He thought perhaps it might be pitchblende, the precious ore in which Pierre and Marie Curie first discovered radium. He ‘called the spot “LaBine Point.” Two months later he. was joined by his brother Charles, who with Leo Seaberg and Shirley R. Cragg, an American engineer from Cincinnati, had made the long trip down the to be mined. d LaBine Point, on Great Bear Lake, site By D. LINDSAY WATSON How they travel in the north when they don't use airplanes. . is standing by the canoe in which his party took six weeks to reach the ore fields. CU LUI ta Here's the romantic story of science’s one greatest discovery of the year 1931 The power of radium. . . . A photo- graph of a bowl of radium salts. . . . The rays that stream from the salt affect the film like light and make the bowl seem to glow. Peace, Athabasca, Slave and Mac- Kenzie rivers by canoe. The Canadian Northwest Terri- tories, through which they passed, 3,700,000 square miles in expanse, the only real frontier on the North American continent, are a vast coun- try of immense distances, mighty riv- ers and huge lakes. The Great Bear Lake itself is about the size of Lake Ontario, 12,000 square miles in area. Only 12,000 people, whites, half- breeds, Indians and Eskimos, occupy this whole region. Along the course of the rivers there are settlements every 50 to 150 miles; stations of the Hudson Bay Company and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, chief agents of civilization here, together with Indian camps, mis- sions of the Catholic Church and cab- ins of lone trappers. Within reach of this help all seems comfortable. But for those who travel just a short distance from the Shirley B. Cragg, the American en- poe who helped locate the radium deposits . ° dressed in north- ern costume. *, Gilbert LaBine had been or what he had seen. How he had lived in the winter, when the temperature runs from 50 to 70 degrees below zero, Was a mystery. Mackenzie waterway, starvation, freezing, or madness are waiting. Horrible things may happen in these lonely places of the north, not the least of dangers . being the sleigh dogs. They are part wolf, and if a man accidentally falls, the wolf in the dog occasionally masters them and they attack. On their journey LaBine and Cragg heard of a child being eaten by the dogs, and of a colonel of the Mounted Police who, returning from a— ils. duty tour, found that his wife had been torn to pieces by his dogs, ‘ At another point they were met by a strange- looking man with white hair-hanging down his back. ‘He had been away on-a trapping expe- dition but was unable to remember where he way... croaching on the wilderness. wreck of James Vance’s plane. drowned, 7 ve TTT TTT The pew mode of travel in the northwest territories. . at Fort McMurray, 800 miles from Echo Bay, . By plane, Rapidly, however, planes and radios are en- Everybody flies now in the northwest, . But this too has its per- ‘When Cragg’s party arrived at Hunter Bay on the Great Bear Lake they found the Misjudging the’ distance to the water, he had crashed and With the help of planes LaBine-and Cragg were able to make several trips back and forth “x¢SMMTTAVTT AFICIO ETTNTEINTOEOTNTTTTTTTTTT TTT ore is worth up to How the rich new ores, found in the Canadian wilderness by flying prospectors, will break the world monopoly in the earth's most precious metal, now held by Belgium from Edmonton to the site of their find in 13 hours, whereas the canoe trip took all of six weeks from start to finish. ‘When they got back to civilization in Can- ada they took some pieces of the black ore to the laboratories. The mineralogists told them that it was‘a very high grade of pitchblende containing from 30 to 80 per cent uranium oxide. Some of the Colorado ores con- taining only two to four per cent of uranium oxide have been profitably worked. ADIUM, too, was present in the pitchblende ‘to the extent of 100 to 200 milligrams to the ton. This was as much as the best of Belgian ores, which still rule the world market. At least $7000 worth of radium, they were told, was present in every ton of the ore. Fortunately the deposits are concen- trated and easily accessible to the sur- face, which is not true in the Congo. Further flights were made “in ‘Feb- ruary and July until the layout of the lake shore was thoroughly understood. After the first discovery, further ex- plorations were rewarded by the discov- . ery of a second pitchblende vein. Mr. Cragg. believes, however, that a “radium rush” to Echo Bay is not likely to be profitable. The discoverers have fully protected their deposits by claiming all ground within striking tange of their veins for long dis- fields to 13 hours. tances. No uranium ore, in which the radium always occurs, other than that found’ by La- Bine and his friends, has been seen, But the radium find was not all. The silver ore found alongside of the pitchblende has turned out to be of very high grade, containing a relatively high per cent of the metal, . Twenty tons of pitchblende ore have already been shipped out, and 40 more tons are now ready for shipping. ; (Copyright, 1931, By EveryWeek Magazine and Science Service—Printed in U. 8. A.) ' ce uA “icc gy \ i di hipment back to civilization, « + « The Packing the radium id to 3 en bs ‘ A ea COROT ek shippe + «The airplane base i and nearest spot on.the rail- the discoverers can cut the six-weeks’ journey to the: ore in the world, is used day and SL eT — a i HUNDUHOOUGAOUCK00 N00 TAUREN by plane. UNITED States A map indicating the scene of the reat “‘radium strike” in Canada’s remote northwest, i a THE two great railways'of Canada are be- lieved to be ready to build into these re- mote regions when outstanding ore bodies are found. Even with the $1.30 per .pound charged for air freight back to Edmonton it would almost be profitable to ship the ore by airplane. Te is beginning to look as if these two men had done a bigger thing for the world (and fcr their new company, Eldorado Gold Mines, Lit ited), than many more highly advertised ex- Peditions into the polar regions, The world really needs an addition to its meager store of radium. After all, there is less than a pound and a half all told. About half of this total (nine ounces, to be exact) has been mined and purified within the borders of the United States. The United States owes the development of its radium resources particularly to one man, Dr. Richard B. Moore. In 1911 Professor Moore made a speech at the opening of the Chemists’ Club in New York City. He warned his fellow chemists that the United States was letting the radium industry slip out of its hands into foreign control. Aroused by Dr. Moore’s remarks, the U. S; Bureau of Mines sent him out to Colorado to investigate. Three times as much radium, he , found, was being made from the carnotite ores y of Colorado and Utah as from all other sources of radium in the world. Europe was buying and shipping abroad these American ores, man- ufacturing the radium, keeping the bulk of it and selling small amounts back to Americans at $70,000 a gram. PUQUULAQG4A000 0001 LAD UCL AAA LAND ALLAH LAs - RARE minerals laboratory under the charge of Dr. Moore was established at Denver, to work out the best method of coaz- ing the radium from the ore, At the same time a Radium Institute was set up. The Radium Institute supplied the capital which permitted the long preliminary work of devising a refining Process to be carried out. The Bureau of Mines co-operated by supplying ex- perts in geology and chemistry, efforts to give the world and the United States a readier supply of radium were completely successful. Shortly after 1913, when ube work was begun, the Den- ver radium plant was producing the bulk of the world’s supply. nessed the discovery. at Katanga, in the Belgian Congo, of a much richer and more extensive Pitch- blende deposit... This contained enough radium so that it was prof- itable to ship it to Europe for ex- traction, : Not indeed until 1922 did the Belgian radium appear on the mar- Bes fet when di it drove all Competitors out of the fiel For this reason. the American : ings have been discontinued (some think un- wisely) ‘and the Belgian manufacturers have enjoyed a.world monopoly since then, Resentment has been felt by doctors through. out the world that radium has inot been made more widely available for their urgent uses, At Maso Homiet in ce York, devoted en- tirely to the treatment of cancer, the eight-gram supply of radium, largest store at any i night. UAAUUUA LA. OM cn S00 eR A ML %, of ¥ a 4 iy we ire fe in)