Uraninite (Pitchblende) Uranium 10.9 Oz. 54k and 50 similar items

URANINITE URANIUM ROCK (PITCHBLENDE) $42.00 plus $12.80 shipping This rock was found at the oldest uranium mining area: in the USA: Uravan, at the SW corner of Colorado, located about 17 miles north of the small town of Naturita CO. Uranium was first mined there around 1910, in addition to a non-radioactive ore called vanadium, which is used to harden steel. The famous French nuclear scientist, Marie Curie, visited Uravan in the 1920s to teach the miners how to recognize a different radioactive mineral, radium, which is also found in the soils at Uravan. The uranium used in the atom bomb dropped at Hiroshima Japan came from Uravan; some of that uranium also came from the Shinawebre mine located at the Belgian Congo in Africa. Uraninite was available in large amounts at mines of the Czech Republic, but the Germans in WWII failed to develop a nuclear weapons program because their leader, "Adolf," had no interest in this type of weapon. Uraninite was the main type of uranium ore found at the Lisbon Valley, Utah area, by Texas geologist Charley Steen, during the 1950s to the 1970s. Steen donated much of his wealth to charities in the Utah mining town of Moab. Stephen Buggie Professor Emeritus Univ. of New Mexico Gallup NM 87301