RECOVERY OF URANIUM

Press, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 25274, 28 August 1947, Page 6

RECOVERY OF URANIUM

—♦— NEW PROCESS UNDER DEVELOPMENT

PLANS FOR WEST COAST GOLD DREDGES From Our Own Reporter WELLINGTON, August 27. New Zealand may become a country of vital importance in this atomic age, for there are known to be substantial quantities of uranium waiting to be recovered on the West Coast of the South Island. Methods are being developed to separate heavy minerals from dredge tailings and certain sands, and it is known that one gold dredge company registered in Christchurch and working on the West Coast has already modified some of its equipment to deal with the extraction of uranium.

A survey of New Zealand’s resources of uranium and thorium has reached a point where some idea can be given of the chances of recovery of these minerals. In the case of the recovery of tailings from some dredges, it has been found that to make a complete recovery of uranium, the work of dredges would have to be slowed down and the output of gold thus reduced. Effort has been devoted to new and important methods of separation of heavy minerals from such tailings, and from some types of sands. An officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research has studied methods of flotation and separation of heavy minerals in Australia and as a result of this- and other investigations, equipment is being assembled so that the separation process can be carried out more efficiently.

A number of light portable gamma ray counters have been produced. Laboratory type counters have also been made and work started on beta ray counters. They are used to indicate the presence of the group of radioactive minerals to which uranium and thorium belong. Some work has also been done on chemical methods of estimation of these two metals. Proposed Treatment Plant Asked to comment on proposals that were being made for the extraction of uranium and other valuable metals from dredge tailings, the chairman of the Ngahere Gold Dredging Company (Mr C. C. Davis) said that the matter had been dealt with almost entirely by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. It was proposed that a treatment plant should be established to .take the tailings from a number of dredges. It would probably be in the Greymouth area or in some position to handle the tailings from a number of big dredges. The scheme was in the initial stages as yet, but whatever the Government decided to do the dredging companies were quite willing to follow and help as much as they could. Mr Davis said there were a number of minerals that might be of value that could be obtained from the process. New Zealand had been searched from end to end for uranium in quantity but nothing worth while had been found. Some of the best results had been obtained from dredge tailings and that was why this proposal had been put forward.