Uranium tile Uranium tile Uranium tiles have been used in the ceramics industry for many centuries, as uranium oxide makes an excellent ceramic glaze, and is reasonably abundant on the earth's crust. Not long after Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity in uranium salts, Madame Curie discovered both polonium and radium as two new radioactive elements also present with uranium. The relatively high specific activity and moderate half-life of 1,600 years of Ra-226, the main radioisotope of radium found in uranium ore, made for a material which when mixed with a phosphor allowed for a glow-in-the-dark substance. Thus, in addition to its medical usage,
Uranium mining in Colorado is associated with faulting-induced fractures in the sandstone. Horizon Nevada Uranium Inc. has announced plans for exploration drilling in 2008 for uranium in the South Park Ranch area of southeast Park County. The Cochetopa mining district is about 20 miles southeast of Gunnison in northwest Saguache and southern Gunnison County. Uranium was discovered in outcrops of the Morrison Formation (Jurassic). Mineralization occurs in silicified (chalcedony and quartz) veins cutting the Morrison Formation and the subjacent Precambrian schist. The veins contain pitchblende, autunite and uranophane, with accessory marcasite and barite. Extraction started in 1954, by underground mining. Uranium was discovered near