Uranium for the Atomic Bomb

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 269, 14 November 1945, Page 5

Uranium for the Atomic Bomb

One of the worlds few known deposits of uranium is at Mount Pointer in South Australia, in a rugged and almost unknown part of the Flinders Range. Following an appeal made by Mr. Churchill to Mr. Curtin in London last year to help in the intense search for unanium, prompt action was taken by Australia to give all possible assistance. The Federal Government sought the co-operation of the South Australian Government, and so promptly was this given that, through the effort of tho South Australian Mines Department and the Engineer-in-Chief’s Department, the deposit was in production for the recovery of uranium within six weeks. In that period a road had been constructed through a creek, which had provided almost insurmountable difficulties; 100 square miles of some of the most rugged country in Australia had been surveyed by air; geological parties, including university students, under considerable hardship, had examined likely formations; and the first product of the field was being flown from an airstrip at Balcanoona Station, 30 miles away, the nearest level ground. The cost of this work was borne by the British Government. Camels carried supplies for the geologists, surveyors and miners. The building of the road was speeded U P by a dulldozer, which cleared obstacles, which in normal times would have taken gangs of men days to remove. In places, boulders 20ft. in diameter, in gorges 600 ft. in height, had to be blasted, but still the road was made, and heavy plant consisting of dynamos, air compressors, pumps and hauling gear, was taken in. A bore was sunk, and residential quarters wero provided. Expert miners wero released from the forces, or obtained from Broken Hill and flown to the field. It is remarkable that all this should have been done in so short a time, with the nearest railhead 80 miles away. Until 1939, the sole investigation at Mount Painter was for radium; uranium was discarded. Its power in explosives then became partly understood, and a world-wide search followed. Mount Painter was first worked in a search for radium in 1913. AU transport was by camels. Twenty tons of hand-picked oro was sent to London. It yielded about. 3.1-1 per cent, of U 303/ but the precise amount of uranium was never ascertained. The quantity of radium was infinitesimal.