Uranium mining Cornwall. The first deliberate mining of radioactive ores took place in Jáchymov, a silver-mining city in the Czech Republic. Marie Curie used pitchblende ore from Jáchymov to isolate the element radium, a decay product of uranium. Until World War II uranium was mined primarily for its radium content; some carnotite deposits were mined primarily for the vanadium content. Sources for radium, contained in the uranium ore, were sought for use as luminous paint for watch dials and other instruments, as well as for health-related applications, some of which in retrospect were certainly harmful. The byproduct uranium was used mostly as
Uranium mining in Colorado granite. Although the zinc skarn and the pitchblende vein are exposed in the same workings, the pitchblende appears to have been deposited much later. Other vein-type uranium mines in the Front Range were the Fairday A. M. mine near Jamestown in Boulder County, and the Wright Lease mine near Ideledale in Jefferson County. The 70 mile long Uravan mineral belt is an arcuate zone of uranium-vanadium deposits in San Miguel, Montrose, and Mesa counties, Colorado, and Grand County, Utah. It was the area most productive of uranium in the United States in the early 20th century. The mineral belt includes