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Gemstones, Minerals & Fossils
Fluorescent Minerals
Interesting stuff under UV
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<blockquote data-quote="user 4386" data-source="post: 581775" data-attributes="member: 4386"><p>Carnotite (or possibly autunite) is the most likely mineral in your sample - yellowcake is not a natural mineral but is produced by humans as part of the chemical leaching process of uranium ore.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/carnotite" target="_blank">https://www.britannica.com/science/carnotite</a></p><p></p><p>The chances of it doing you harm are very small, but as a general principle I would wear plastic gloves, and put it in a plastic box so that others are not tempted to handle it.</p><p>LoneWolf, I doubt that your mate got throat cancer from his collection (not completely impossible but not a fraction as likely as with smoking cigarettes). However if he collected underground, radon gas can do it....Miners work with uranium in uranium mines, and it is thought that radioactive radon gas (rather than the uranium minerals) that gives them the higher rates of things like lung cancer that occurs in these miners. But of course the radon comes from radioactive decay of uranium minerals.</p><p></p><p><a href="https://youtu.be/uyL_kpSslqY" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/uyL_kpSslqY</a></p><p></p><p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pgms/worknotify/uranium.html" target="_blank">https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pgms/worknotify/uranium.html</a></p><p></p><p>As for fluorescence, it is the nature of the uranium (its "oxidation state" - hexavalent uranium) that gives a yellow fluorescence. Many uranium minerals are not hexavalent and do not fluoresce.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="user 4386, post: 581775, member: 4386"] Carnotite (or possibly autunite) is the most likely mineral in your sample - yellowcake is not a natural mineral but is produced by humans as part of the chemical leaching process of uranium ore. [url]https://www.britannica.com/science/carnotite[/url] The chances of it doing you harm are very small, but as a general principle I would wear plastic gloves, and put it in a plastic box so that others are not tempted to handle it. LoneWolf, I doubt that your mate got throat cancer from his collection (not completely impossible but not a fraction as likely as with smoking cigarettes). However if he collected underground, radon gas can do it....Miners work with uranium in uranium mines, and it is thought that radioactive radon gas (rather than the uranium minerals) that gives them the higher rates of things like lung cancer that occurs in these miners. But of course the radon comes from radioactive decay of uranium minerals. [url]https://youtu.be/uyL_kpSslqY[/url] [url]https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/pgms/worknotify/uranium.html[/url] As for fluorescence, it is the nature of the uranium (its "oxidation state" - hexavalent uranium) that gives a yellow fluorescence. Many uranium minerals are not hexavalent and do not fluoresce. [/QUOTE]
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Gemstones, Minerals & Fossils
Fluorescent Minerals
Interesting stuff under UV
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