Pitchblende
Uraninite is a uranium-rich mineral with a composition that is largely UO2, but which also contains UO3 and oxides of lead, thorium, and rare earths. The uraninite may occur as black octahedral or cubic crystals of high specific gravity (9.0 - 10.63); when in masses of pitch-like lustre it is called pitchblende. All uraninites and pitchblende contain a minute amount of radium; it was in pitchblende from the Jáchymov in Czechoslovakia that Marie Curie discovered radium.
Hardness: 5 - 6. It is soluble in sulphuric, nitric, and hydrofluoric acids.
Uraninite is a major ore of uranium. An important occurrence of pitchblende is at Great Bear Lake in the Northwest Territories of Canada, where it is found in large quantities associated with silver. It also occurs in Germany, England, and South Africa, and in New Hampshire, Connecticut, and North Carolina in the United States.
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