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Carnotite is a potassium uranium vanadate mineral with chemical formula potassium2(uraniumoxygen2)2(vanadium4)2 ·3water. The water content can vary and small amounts of calcium, barium, magnesium, iron, and sodium are often present. It is a major ore of uranium. It is slightly radioactive.
In the United States it is an important ore of uranium in the Colorado Plateau region of the United States where it occurs as disseminations in sandstone and concentrations around petrified logs. It also occurs in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Colorado, South Dakota, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. It also occurs incidentally in Grants, New Mexico, and Carbon County, Pennsylvania. Mindat with locations
Carnotite is reported in Congo (Kinshasa), Morocco, Australia (Radium Hill) and Kazakhstan. In Pakistan carnotite occurs in the Upper Miocene middle Siwaliks sandstone (Dhokpathan Formation), in the vicinity of Takhat Nasrati, Karak District.
The mineral was used to produce quack devices involving radioactive substances.
Name and discovery
The mineral was first described in 1899 by French scientists M. M. C. Freidel and E. Cumenge, who identified it in specimens from Roc Creek in Montrose County, Colorado, United States.Robert J. Wright and Donald L. Everhart (1960) Uranium, in Mineral Resources of Colorado First Sequel, State of Colorado Mineral Resources Board, p. 330–331. It is named for Marie Adolphe Carnot (1839–1920), French mining engineer and chemist.
Uses
Carnotite is an ore of uranium. Before the nuclear reactor was invented in 1942 it was mined primarily for radium or vanadium.
Related mineral species
Several related mineral species exist, including: margaritasite ((caesium,K,hydrogen3O)2(UO2)(VO4)2 ·H2O) and tyuyamunite, (Ca(UO2)2(VO4)2 ·5-8H2O).
See also
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