Places to find radioactive rocks?

[FlashGP]

I didn't know such a body took an interest in hobbiests

[darttrev68]

An update on some of the South Australian locations.

Davidite is found at Radium Hill and other locations throughout the Olary District. On Plumbago Station there are two locations where crystals of Davidite can be found - Billeroo and Mount Victoria. Also on Plumbago Station is Absite (Thorian Brannerite) at Crocker Well and Samarskite can be found near Mount Victoria.

Radium Hill is no longer able to be visited, only members of the Radium Hill Historical Society have permission and this is restricted. Plumbago Station can be visited via special arrangement with the Pastoral Company who own it.

The other location for uranium minerals is Arkaroola - Mount Gee. Torbernite is found at the Number 6 Workings. Fossicking is not allowed on Arkaroola any more, however if the samples are for scientific research there may be a chance to collect a few small pieces. Access to the workings is via a 6km hike in from Echo Camp.

[Rej]

A late thank you darttrev68 for that info. I see you've got some nice davidite specimens on your store...

We've been travelling around QLD for the school holidays and managed to go visit the old Mary Kathleen mine today.

For anyone following my quest, there are definitely still specimens to be found there. Nothing too flash as for as pretty minerals, but plenty of pitchblende (uranium oxides) laying around. Easy to find with basic detector instruments.

Here's me in front of the beautiful scenery proudly holding some ore I found with my home-made scintillation counter.



Tomorrow I'll try to access the Milo deposit to see what can be found there.

[Plutonium]

Yeah, I'm going to have to go for a drive out there sometime soon.

[Bucket]

Great photo Rej. Now I'm disappointed I didn't get out there a couple of years ago, looks like a great spot to visit.

[Plutonium]

I just showed Xan the Cloncurry picture and they didn't see you, all they saw was rocks and a place to swim !!!

[Plutonium]

What did or Did you find on your latest trip to Broken Hill Rej?
I've got a few new sites I need to check out and I think they'll turn up a bit of Davidite.

[Rej]

I didn't manage to get to Plumbago Station as they'd just received crazy rains that resulted in bogs. The station owner asked me not to go so I respected that.

I did manage to stop off the side of the highway where the old train track merged in from the Radium Hill mine. I only stopped for 20 minutes but found a few pieces of Davidite ore from RH, one with carnotite  .

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These were found with a new, small survey meter I made that uses a small CsI(Tl) crystal matched to a mini PMT, and hooked up to an Arduino-based counter


I also found a few loose Davidite crystals at a dump site outside BH, probably rejects from Billeroo.

If nothing else, it was exciting to hunt them and dig them up using the sensitive probe. I'd start getting clicks a meter away from a 1/2" davidite xtal!

I'll be going back soon, so feel free to msg me here or on FB for those new sites. 

[Gemster]

Are any of your specimens Fluorescent  under True UV light ?  Just curious...


 Gemster...

[Rej]

Not much on the ones from the Olary area, a bit of green secondaries crust on some, but nothing exciting.

The stuff from Beltana zinc mine though (not radioactive), that's another story under SW UV ...

[Gemster]

    Wow Rej... They are the best i have seen from Beltana for ages. ..
  I have some pieces here but are not as good as yours... They are quite large. 2-4 kg.. Do You think it would it be better if i sliced the rock ?
  Do you think that it would expose the Fluorescent Minerals more ?
 They look a bit 'dull' on my small SW Uv torch..


  Gemster...

[Rej]

Cheers. It's hard to tell from the picture but these are quite small (2-4cm) but indeed very nice. These were pieces of ore we found a bit further south, where they used to load the trains. Much richer than what we found near the mine.

Since they were so small, I ran them through the tumbler with some soap for just a few hours to expose fresh surface. That worked really well. I didn't have much luck with the one specimen I sliced...

I did have some luck cracking off fresh faces on my larger pieces. It's hit and miss whether you get something good, but it always brighter than the weathered surface

[Rej]

They look a bit 'dull' on my small SW Uv torch..

I missed this comment about the UV torch so I'll add this: The stuff from Beltana is quite disappointing if all you have is a torch. I built up a bunch of different single LED + quad LED SW and MW torches in anticipation of my trip to the Flinders and found them to be borderline useless at spotting anything good when it came to weathered rocks.

The picture above (and most of my hunting) was done using a big 35W SW lamp which produces 9W of UV. If you consider that the large UV LEDs put out 0.5W of UV and the small ones 0.1W, it's not hard to see why...

Once cleaned up, the torches are "ok" to view in a dark room, but nothing like how they light up NJ willemite in broad daylight.

[Gemster]

Thanks Rej... Time will tell if i have something great... Im building my own  UV light that will be used for my cabinet... But like all things, It takes time...


  Gemster...

[Plutonium]

Most Australian Radioactive rocks don't Fluoresce or glow under UV light.
Davidite and Carnotite that tend to come from the Radium Hill region specifically don't glow.
The ones that do tend to come from the immediate area around Ranger Mine.

I've also been having a bit of a laugh at some old Australian mineral identification requests and any time a yellow mineral turns up, somebody suggests it's "Yellowcake". Given that yellowcake isn't a mineral. It's processed Uranum oxide and there isn't even a mineral that is close to it chemically.  Carnotite which frequently gets mis-labled yellowcake is a Vandinate.