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Compilation of data on the uranium and equivalent uranium content of samples analyzed by U.S. Geological Survey during a program of sampling mine, mill, and smelter products

In 1942 the Geological Survey began to collect, in response to a request made by the War Production Board, samples of mine, mill, and smelter products. About 1,400 such samples were collected and analyzed spectrographically for about 20 elements that were of strategic importance, in order to determine whether any of the products analyzed might be possible sources of some of the needed elements. When attention was directed to radioactive elements in 1943, most of the samples were scanned for radioactivity. Part of the work was done on behalf of the Division of Raw Materials of the Atomic Energy Commission. The sources, mine mill, smelter, or prospect, from which these samples were collected, the kind of material sampled, i.e. ores, concentrates, middlings, tailings, flue dusts, and so forth, and the radioactivity of the samples are listed in this report. Samples of the materials collected in the course of the Geological Survey’s investigations for uranium are excluded, but about 500 such samples were analyzed spectrographically for some or all of the same 20 elements sought in the samples that are the subject of this report. Most of the samples were tested only for their radioactivity, but a few were analyzed chemically for uranium. The radioactivity of many of the samples tested in the early screening was determined only qualitatively. Several samples were tested at one time, and if the count obtained did not exceed a predetermined minimum above background, the samples were not tested individually. If the count was more than this minimum, the samples were tested individually to identify the radioactive sample or samples and to obtain a quantitative value for the radioactivity. In general, the rough screening served as a basis for separating samples in which the radioactivity amount to less than 0.003 percent equivalent uranium from those in which it exceeded that amount. Some aspects of various phases of the investigation of radioactivity in these samples have been reported in various other reports, as follows.

Trace Elements Investigations

Stratigraphic sections of the Phosphoria formation 1953 and 1954

Since 1947, the U.S. Geological Survey has measured and sampled phosphatic parts of the Permian Phosphoria formation and its partial stratigraphic correlatives at many localities in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah. Preliminary data on the thickness of the beds and their composition at localities sampled prior to 1952 have been issued already in TEI-183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 375, 376, 377, and 378. This report presents similar data on the localitites sampled in 1953 and 1954 (figs. 1, 2, and 3). The field and laboratory procedures adopted in these investigations are described in a previous report (McKelvey and others 1953a).

Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming