History of chemistry element among the fractions that resulted. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Marie's native country of Poland. On December 21, 1898, the Curies detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende. They presented this finding to the French Academy of Sciences on December 26, proposing that the new element be called radium. The Curies then went to work isolating polonium and radium from naturally occurring compounds to prove that they were new elements. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram
Uranium mining in Colorado back uranium-mining projects. There are no currently producing uranium mines in Colorado. Hydrothermal uranium deposits are present through a widely spaced area in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in Larimer, Boulder, Gilpin, Clear Creek, and Jefferson counties. The first uranium identified in the USA was pitchblende from the Wood gold mine at Central City, Colorado in 1871. Pitchblende orebodies were also discovered in the Calhoun mine, the Kirk mine, and some others. About 122,000 pounds (55 metric tons) of uranium oxide (UO) were shipped at irregular intervals from six gold mines in the Central City district from 1872