# Is this Thorium Ore



## geubrina (Oct 7, 2008)

Hi, everybody...

Tell me, is it Thorium Ore? 

I found the posted picture below is very similar to the picture from this site:

http://www.gimizu.de/cgi-bin/Kabinett.cgi?deics_4a/4_117.jpg


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## JustinNH (Oct 7, 2008)

Ihave some older, weathered pyrite cubes that look exactly like what you have.


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## geubrina (Oct 7, 2008)

Oh, anybody can suggest a simple way to test whether it is pyrite or thorianite?

Thanks....


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## Lou (Oct 7, 2008)

Yea, a Geiger counter.


Failing that, go cheap and put it in a dark box with a piece of film for a few weeks. If it exposes, it's thorianite.


Lou


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## Richard36 (Dec 13, 2010)

Thanks for the Photo geubrina.

Yes, I say this is Thorianite.

The website that this photo is from is one of several good sites 
where specific minerals of economic interest can be viewed. 

Good site to go to with a copied list of all the precious metal ores 
I have listed in my thread on that subject.

If you were to get some Thorianite, just for fun as an experiment, you could place colorless Quartz Crystals within some Thorianite inside of a lead foil lined box (With lead foil lined lid), and within, say a couple of months, convert those colorless Quartz Crystals into Amethyst, (Liliac to purple) or Citrine, (Yellow to Orange), if the Quartz contains any Copper ions within it's crystal lattice.

It is this process in nature that converts ordinary Quartz into valuable gemstone material.

Natural background radioactivity creates a reaction with the metal ions causing the stone to "Take on Color". 

This process does the same thing, and for the same reasons with Topaz, and Beryl.

Sincerely, Rick."The Rock Man".


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## goldsilverpro (Dec 13, 2010)

I had only one experience with thorium ore, but that stuff sure looks the same. In the AF, I went though a nuclear emergency team (NET) school at Sandia Base in NM. Out in the sticks, they had a crashed airplane with thorium ore spread around it for about a 100 yd radius, to simulate a Broken Arrow. We measured the radiation in a grid pattern and then plotted it. If I remember right, the thorium was primarily a beta emitter.


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## Richard36 (Dec 13, 2010)

goldsilverpro said:


> If I remember right, the thorium was primarily a beta emitter.



Beta isn't quite as gnarly as gamma, but bad enough. 
So what's the difference, One makes you glow in the dark, 
and the other only makes you fluoresce?

Wanna put some Thorianite through a fire assay? lol!
I wouldn't. The thorium would gas off, and that wouldn't be a good day.

Just making a point, and trying to be slightly funny.

Sincerely, Rick."The Rock Man".


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## Lou (Dec 14, 2010)

Actually, thorium makes one hell of a stable oxide, thoria (ThO2). Used to be used in lieu of lime in the limelight of yore and lore. Anyhow, thoria was once used in Coleman gas lights.


Lou


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