PRECIOUS OUNCE

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXV, Issue 12257, 22 February 1937, Page 3

PRECIOUS OUNCE

RADIUM FROM PITCHBLIiIXDH To mark the completion of the refining of one ounce of radium from Canadian pitchblende deposits, the owners of the enterprise gave a banquet in Ottawa at which the Gover-nor-General, Lord Tweedsmuir, and the Prime .Minister, Mr Mackenzie King, were''guests. This pitchblende ore is found in vast quantities on the far northern Arctic rim .pf Canada. It is concentrated at the works plant, carried out by aeroplane, taken for refinery to a plant at Port Hope, Ontario, near Toronto. When production of Canadian radium had reached its first ounce, valued at some £ 175,000, officials of governments and universities assembled at Port Hope to watch the refining process. Then they were brought to Ottawa by special train for the banquet, and they dined bn caribou steaks brought by air from the Great Slave Lake district. On behalf of Eldorado Mines, the owners, the Governor-General presented plaques to the staffs of the Dominion Department of Mines and the National Research Council to commemorate their work in developing the radium deposits. The pitchblende deposits were discovered some years ago by Gilbert la Bine, who is now general manager of the company.