RADIUM INDUSTRY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 1 June 1938, Page 9

RADIUM INDUSTRY

OPERATIONS IN CANADA. ' NEW FACILITIES PROVIDED. OTTAWA, Canada. The radium industry of Canada is reported to have increased considerably its productive capacity during 1937. Only one company is engaged at present in the commercial production of this rare metal in the Dominion, although prospecting and experimental work is being carried on by other concerns. This company’s radium refinery at Port Hope, Ontario, has been enlarged and the new facilities will make possible a capacity three times the volume of the original plant. The output figures for radium in 1937 have not yet been announced, but during 1936 the radium output at the Port Hope refinery was at the approximate rate of 21 grams per month.

The radium-bearing pitchblend now being worked by the company at Great Bear Lake, within the Arctic Circle in the Northwest Territories of Canada, was discovered in 1930 by Gilbert Labine. Development at the mine in 1937 included an 8,000-foot underground advance and construction of several buildings. The mine has been electrified by the installation of new Diesel and boiler equipment, the oil for fuel being obtained from the oil wells at Fort Norman, likewise in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle. This installation, along with such equipment as jig, filter, and additional flotation cells was all completed in December. New constructions also include a chemical laboratory, a new assay office and two 70,000 gallon tanks for fuel oil.

The radium-bearing ore is shipped from the mine to the refinery at Port Hope, where besides radium there is production of uranium salts, principally orange and yellow sodium uranate. It is planned to extend the production of the refinery to cater to the requirements of uranium products for the ceramic and other industries.

All the radium produced is consigned to England for measurement and loading into needles. Most of the output of uranium salts is shipped to England and the United States.