Uranium Rush

From Darwin to Melbourne, the word had got around that Australia's vast, tropical Northern Territory was bursting with uranium. Hundreds of adventurous young men from Australia's overcrowded southern cities, plus many an old gold fossicker from West Australia, were making their way up through the desert by jeeps, horse-drawn wagons, on horseback, even in airplanes. In Darwin, Geiger counters were sold out as fast as they came into the store. One newspaper advertised counters: "Find Uranium and Make Your Fortune."

The excitement had begun at Rum Jungle, 60 miles south of Darwin, where a prospector named Jack White uncovered a three-mile-long lode of uranium-bearing ore in 1949. Australia was then too busy and prosperous selling wool at fancy prices to bother about uranium, but a growing dollar shortage renewed government interest in uranium production.

Last month new discoveries were reported: i) on the Edith River, 190 miles south of Darwin, and 2) 1,500 miles away, in South Australia, not far from Radium Hill (which has yielded low-grade radioactive minerals for years). The Australian government promises rewards up to $55,000 for further discoveries.

Some Australian uranium ore is already being shipped to the U.S. Under a new agreement now being negotiated, the U.S. will buy most of the uranium Australia can mine in its newly discovered fields. Conscious of the danger of espionage (see above), the Australian government has put the uranium fields out of bounds except for screened personnel.

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