When anyone is reading about Uranium, the term pitchblende always pops out. Let’s learn about what is pitchblende and what does it mean to Uranium?
Pitchblende, also known as Uraninite, an oxide mineral of Uranium comprising of UO2, UO3.It is the primary ore for Uranium and is pitch black in color. The word “blende” was coined by a German miner who believed it was material with a couple of metals all blended together.
Composition
This mineral contains many radioactive elements that are formed due to the natural decay of Uranium namely Radium, Lead, Helium, and several Actinide elements. In fact, Helium has first discovered on Earth was due to pitchblende. Pitchblende was also the source for the discovery of several elements. In the last leg of the 1700s, Martin Heinrich Klaproth discovered and identified Uranium as a new element in pitchblende. A hundred years later Marie and Pierre Curie discovered Radium while working with pitchblende. Three years earlier William Ramsay discovered the first isolated Helium from pitchblende.
