Radium Restriction

Two members of the British House of Commons made an astounding insinuation last week--that the private Belgian concern, Union Miniere du Haut Katanga, which manufactures 90% of the world's radium under Belgian Government control, was restricting that valuable metal's production. The Belgian pitchblende mines, whence the related radium, polonium and lead are refined, are at Katanga, Belgian Congo. Those mines have far outdistanced the Jackinov mines in Czechoslovakia where Becquerel and the Curies got their first pitchblende supplies. Other, but at present little used, sources of radium are autunite deposits in Portugal, betafite deposits in Madagascar, carnotite deposits in Colorado and Australia. These sources might be worked intensively if the British M. P.'s asseverations are true, that Belgium can easily produce 30 grams (slightly more than one ounce avoirdupois) of radium yearly instead of the 20 grams it has been producing in recent years.