Pitchblende - McKinney Mine, Spruce Pine, Spruce Pine District, Mitchell Co., North Carolina, USA

Hi! The old label had the ID for pitchblende from Spruce Pine. Its really hot--pegs my meter on the highest setting. Any simple test to make sure it isn't polycrase? Thanks--please reply to my email if possible.. MJ

Probably the most significant factor that it's uraninite is that polycrase has not been reported from McKinney mine. Your description of the relative radioactivity would also suggest uraninite which exhibits about 10 times the activity of polycrase. You could also check the density since uraninite is more dense than polycrase.

Another test you could do would be for possible density change after heating.

Uraninite is soluble in Nitric Acid, Polycrase is not.