Radium - Production

Production

Uranium had no large scale application in the late 18th century and therefore no large uranium mines existed. In the beginning the only larger source for uranium ore was the silver mines at Joachimsthal (now Jáchymov) in the Austrian Empire. The uranium ore was only a by-product of the mining activities. After the isolation of radium by Marie and Pierre Curie from uranium ore from Joachimsthal several scientists started to isolate radium in small quantities. Later small companies purchased mine tailings from Joachimsthal mines and started isolating radium. In 1904 the Austrian government took over the ownership of the mines and stopped exporting raw ore. For some time the radium availability was low.

The formation of an Austrian monopoly and the strong urge of other countries to have access to radium led to a world wide search for uranium ores. The United States took over as leading producer in the early 1910s. The Carnotite sands in Colorado provide some of the element, but richer ores are found in the Congo and the area of the Great Bear Lake and the Great Slave Lake of northwestern Canada. Radium can also be extracted from the waste from nuclear reactors. Large radium-containing uranium deposits are located in Russia, Canada (the Northwest Territories), the United States (New Mexico, Utah and Colorado, for example) and Australia. Neither of the deposits is mined for radium but the uranium content makes mining profitable.

The amounts produced were aways relatively small; for example, in 1918 13.6 g of radium were produced in the United states. As of 1954, the total worldwide supply of purified radium amounted to about 5 pounds (2.3 kg).