£750,000 AN OUNCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12255, 4 June 1914, Page 2

£750,000 AN OUNCE.

RICftES OF LIMEHOUSE. When some time ago it was discovered that large quantities of pitch-blende, Irani which radium, which sells ai £750,000 an ouncfe, is extracted, were to be found near St. Ives, Cornwall, a company was promptly formed which took over the process of extraction. This company has a little factory at Limehouse where the final Stages of the extraction take place, although the business has grown to such aih extent that new works are to be erected in the North of London.

After the company was formed it took over the process of extraction which Sir Willian Ramsay and.his assistant, .Air Whitehouse, ha'd invented after long and costly operations. The first British radium was produced at the factory, but the fact that it was British created suspicions that it was not so good as German or French, for in the early days of radium manufacture it was .only possible to obtain it from the Continent. The British radium was offered to British hospitals and institutions, but they were not eager to buy. . Meanwhile Berlin and Frankfort bought as much as they could get, and at the present time the company referred to have contracts with these cities for advance deliveries which are capable of absorbing their output during 1914 and possibly 1915. English radium is booming, and according to the "British Medical Journal" it may yet be established that England is the home of the largest radium supply existing. Scientists' are of opinion that rich sources of pitch-blende are to be discovered in Derbyshire and Gloucestershire. Meantime the Cornish mine is one of the largest sources of pitch : blende in the world.

In the last report it was stated that there were in stock on the surface 44,9401b. of uranium oxide, which, with the price of radium at £l6 a milligramme, represents a value of £160,480. But in addition to this there is another mine close by, worked by a French company, which is" estimated to have in its dumps 10,000 milligrammes of radium. Sir William Ramsay's process,. by ceaseless research and experiment, has been improved so that it is now believed by experts to be. the finest in existence, and with this the cost of production as well as the time required will be considerably reduced.