Habit: amorphous botryoidal mass.
Color: black.
Luster: submetallic. Contains up to
20 wt.% PbO from decaying.
Source of uranium and radium.
A natural phosphide of uranium usually partly oxidized to UO3 with variable amounts of lead, radium, thorium, rare-earth metals, helium, argon, nitrogen. Pitchblende is an important variety. It occurs in Colorado, Utah, South Africa, Canada, Europe, the former U.S.S.R., Australia, Zaire.
A
black mineral consisting mostly of uranium(
VI) oxide, UO3. It is the chief ore of
uranium and radium.
uraninite: A mineral form of uranium(IV) oxide, containing minuteamounts of radium, thorium, polonium,lead, and helium. When uraniniteoccurs in a massive form with apitchy lustre it is known as pitchblende,the chief ore of uranium.Uraninite occurs in Saxony (Germany),Romania, Norway, the UK(Cornwall), E Africa (Democratic Republicof Congo), USA, and Canada(Great Bear Lake).
