[Carnotite]
K₂O·2U₂O₃·V₂O₅·3H₂O
[Pl. 27]
Occurs in earthy masses; color yellow.
This mineral is included here, not because it is common, but because it is of such great interest. It is the chief source of supply in the United States of radium, uranium and vanadium. It is a lemon-yellow earth or powder, which looks a little like orpiment. It is however found in a sandstone, instead of where hot waters have deposed minerals. From a ton of this ore about 10 pounds of uranium oxide, 55 pounds of vanadium and ¹/₁₀₀₀th of a gram of radium are obtained. Carnotite is found in south-west Colorado and south-east Utah, and on Carrizo Mountain on the line between Arizona and New Mexico.
Mercury
Mercury, or quicksilver, is the only metal which is liquid at ordinary temperatures. It is silvery-white in color, with a striking metallic luster, and at the low temperature of 662° F., boils and changes to a colorless vapor. Mercury alloys with certain metals, these alloys being known as amalgams. In this way it is especially useful for the recovery of gold and silver, the mercury being added to crushed ore, the gold or silver uniting with the mercury in a liquid amalgam, which is then drawn off and heated to a temperature above 662° F., at which temperature the mercury volatilizes and is recovered, while the gold or silver remains behind. Mercury also forms a solid amalgam with tin which is used to coat glass, the high metallic luster making the most effective looking glass. It is also used in medicines (calomel, corrosive sublimate, etc.), for scientific instruments (thermometers, barometers, etc.), in cosmetics, in paints for ship bottoms, etc.
Though there are some 25 minerals of mercury, only one is common or important as a source of the metal, cinnabar. The United States is self-sufficient as far as mercury is concerned, producing just about as much as it uses. The leading producers are Spain, Austria, Italy, and the United States. Commercially mercury is quoted as quicksilver, and in flasks of 75 pounds each.
[Cinnabar]
HgS
[Pl. 27]
Occurs in massive or earthy form, or in minute crystals in cavities; hardness 2.5; specific gravity 8; color scarlet to dark red; streak vermilion; luster adamantine; translucent on thin edges.
The bright-red color and the streak are usually enough to identify this mineral at once, but some of the darker varieties resemble hematite or zincite in appearance, but both these have much greater hardness. When in crystals they are tiny hexagonal prisms with pyramids on the end. Cinnabar is usually found in or near metamorphic or igneous rocks, either in veins leading from the igneous rocks, or in metamorphic rocks, or it may occur disseminated through metamorphic rocks. It is associated with quartz or calcite, and may occur with other sulphides like pyrite, galena, argentite, etc. It is most abundant in California, but is also found in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Texas, and Montana.