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Minerals

Main resource: Radiation astronomy/Minerals

This is an image of the mineral pitchblende, or uraninite. Credit: Geomartin.

These crystals are uraninite from Trebilcock Pit, Topsham, Maine. Credit: Robert Lavinsky.

Uraninite is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely [uranium dioxide] UO₂, but also contains [uranium trioxide] UO₃ and oxides of lead, thorium, and rare earth elements. It is most commonly known as pitchblende (from pitch, because of its black color. All uraninite minerals contain a small amount of radium as a radioactive decay product of uranium. Uraninite also always contains small amounts of the lead isotopes ²⁰⁶Pb and ²⁰⁷Pb, the end products of the decay series of the uranium isotopes ²³⁸U and ²³⁵U respectively. The extremely rare element technetium can be found in uraninite in very small quantities (about 0.2 ng/kg), produced by the spontaneous fission of uranium-238.

The image at left shows well-formed crystals of uraninite. The image at right shows botryoidal uraninite. Because of the uranium decay products, both sources are gamma-ray emitters.