CANADA’S RADIUM FIELDS

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 12534, 22 April 1935, Page 3

CANADA’S RADIUM FIELDS

WORLD'S MOST PRECIOUS METAL. OTTAWA, March 16. The inauguration of , the King George V. Silver Jubilee Cancer Fund for Canada has focussed attention on the growing importance of Canada’s pitchblende (radium bearing ore) fields which play such a vital part in the treatment of . the dread scourge. Radium is the world’s -most, precious metal and is.worth about £BOOO a gramme. Canada’s chief field is located at Great Bear Lake in the Far North West of the Dominion, through which cuts the Arctic Circle. In 1934 this field produced 6.1 grammes of radium from 61 tons of ore. Although this is one of Canada’s newest industries—only having been exploited during the past few years .—it is now firmly established. The valuable pitchblende is transported a thousand miles by air and then another three thousand miles by rail to the refinery at Port Hope (Ontario). The discovery of the Great Bear Lake deposits has enabled many cancer clinics iu Ontario to be supplied with radium tubes. In fact, the great humanitarian value of radium led to a suggestion in the Canadian Senate that the Government should take over the deposits. The suggestion, however, was not adopted. Other deposits have been discovered at Hottnh Lake, some distance to the south of Great Boar Lake. The prospector who made, the discovery was the first man to “smell” a. mine. He smelt the pitchblende ore from a distance and was thus attracted to the spot.—Reuters.