Radium Mining

Radium might be an abundant element in earth's surface with a vast occurrence in both land and ocean. Even with its large occurrence around the globe as a minute composition, extraction and production of the element in large usable scales can only performed from the uranium ores. Radium is nothing but the decayed uranium nuclei.

Mining:

Radium is mostly extracted as the byproduct of uranium ore namely 'Pitchblende or Uraniumite'. Methods involved in mining of radium containing ores are surface mining, underground mining and In situ recovery.

In surface mining of radium containing uranium ores, an open pit method is widely used. In this technique the surface bed rocks, sands and gravels are removed by labor to mine the elemental ores. It has some serious environmental and health hazards as the decaying of uranium lets out a harmful radioactive gas called radon. Underground caving method is followed in the areas where the ore bodies seem to present deep down the earth. In this technique tunnels and shafts are built by the labors. It has a lesser environmental effect compared to open pit mining.

In Situ Leach (ISL) mining or In Situ Recovery is a chemical mining process to extract the uranium ores from the deep aquifer treats where uranium is mostly present as small grains unsaturated in the groundwater with other minerals. In this method the mines dug deep well and leaches the aquifer with concentrated sulphuric acid (H2SO4) to saturate the grains of uranium ores. Then the leached solution is pumped out and stored in the wells. Then the leached solution collected with the ores of radium rich uranium is separated from the aqua solution as a precipitate.

Extraction and production:

The ores from open pit mining and underground mining are usually large with many impurities as composites so, they are made to undergo milling and grinding. In milling and grinding the bigger pieces of rocks are broken down to smaller pieces and are made to undergo heap leaching. In heap leaching the extracted broken down ores are drowned in a pool of concentrated acid.

The resultant pregnant solution will dissolve the salts and other mineral components by leaving the uranium containing ores and other not dissolved particles as precipitate. Further the precipitate is leached and filtered of the composites such as radium, barium and other minerals. These other composites are collected as tailings.

In Situ leaching also produces the radium, barium as the impurities from the uranium leaching of the pumped up solution from the underground wells. Here the impurities collected are called as raffinates as it is separated from the liquid solution.

The gathering of raffinates and tailings are the initial process in the production of the radium. Now the tailings and raffinates have radium and barium as radium sulfate and barium sulfate. At first the precipitate is treated with sodium hydroxide and attacked by hydrochloric acid to clear other impending impurities in it. Then the residue is collected where the barium sulfate and radium sulfate is still present as a precipitate and was mixed with sodium carbonate to convert them into carbonate salts.

And again the carbonate salts are mixed with sulfide salts to recreate barium sulfate and radium sulfate. The process is repeated to filter a pure form of barium and radium sulfates which are then made to fractional distillation. In fractional distillation the radium is separated from barium by the usage of spectrometer.The major radium producing counties are Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Russia and United States.

Definition:

Radium is a radioactive chemical component which has the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Its look is almost pure white, but it eagerly oxidizes on exposure to air, turning black. Radium is an alkaline earth metal that is found in trace amounts in uranium ores. It is extremely radioactive.

Properties:

The heaviest of the alkaline earth metals, radium is strongly radioactive and resembles barium in its chemical behavior. This metal is originate in tiny quantity in the uranium ore pitchblende, and various other uranium minerals. Radium preparations are extraordinary for maintaining themselves at a higher temperature than their surroundings, and for their radiations, which are of three kinds: alpha particles, beta particles, and gamma rays.

Application:

Some of the few sensible uses of radium are derived from its radioactive properties. More freshly discovered radioisotopes, such as Co and Cs, are replacing radium in even these limited uses because several of these isotopes are more commanding emitters, safer to handle, and available in more concentrated form.When mixed with beryllium it is a neutron source for physics experiments.