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Identity HelpTrip to Skaha lake in Kelowna B.C. turns up strongly radioactive mineral in pink grit

10th Aug 2020 09:03 UTCconor Whyte

I was just on a trip to the Okanagan region in B.C. Canada and I followed an old Minfile map dated from 1977 to a new housing development next to the Penticton airport.

The area is laden with what is described in Minfile literature as pink grit. There appears to be some sericite as well in the locality. The Radioactive portion of the specimen is the rust orange brown rectangular patch ringed with purple. 6x5cm sized specimen measures approximately 10KCPM via a pancake GM tube. ~ 80-100KCPM using a 3" Plastic scintillation detector. Some of the larger crystals of this radioactive mineral appear cubic.

I was thinking this might be Thorite or Thorianite? Thorium is supposed to be located close to this area.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

10th Aug 2020 09:17 UTCconor Whyte

Entire rock face was covered with masses of radioactive mineralization. again, note the purpling around the orange-brown masses. A few larger patches registered 250-300,000CPM and were

10 cm across.

10th Aug 2020 09:19 UTCconor Whyte

Random patches on the rock face. All highly radioactive. largest patch here is 10cm across..

gave my survey meter a workout.

10th Aug 2020 17:49 UTCGeorg Graf

Hi Conor Whyte,

hm ... remembers me a little bit to the Müllenbach Uranium occurence, mindat.org/loc-1762.html : Impregnation of Uraninite in hydrothermaly altered Arkose Sandstone. The Uraninite is surrounded by Hematit and other iron minerals. Sericite is very common in this rocks. The difference to Okanagan seems to be, in BC, at least at the outcrops, Uraninite is altered to secondary U-Minerals. - Interesting find.

Stay safe! Georg

10th Aug 2020 23:31 UTCconor Whyte

I am going to do a gamma spectral analysis tonight on my specimens.

I am looking for a nice peak at 609.31KeV from Bi214 and Pb214 peaks at 242, 295 and 352 KeV. Also a little peak next to Ra226 ~186KeV of U235 185.7KeV is always present for Uranium minerals.

Thinking here...

There seems to be great deal more Alpha activity than I would typically see on Uranium mineralization which lead me to think about/lean more towards Thorium than Uranium.

With thorium we have Pb212, Ac228 and Tl208 peaks showing up.

Either way I have an unknown sample which is kind of cool ( and spicy). I'll post the spectrum here.

Insert drum roll....

Anyone else have opinions on this mineral?

11th Aug 2020 00:55 UTCconor Whyte

Georg Graf ✉️

mindat.org/loc-1762.html

I see what you mean Georg by the ringing of the uraninite in the

Müllenbach Uranium occurrence. I have another couple of samples I have from the same cliff face and the brown mineral appears to be more of a surfical crust rending the entire sample slightly radioactive 500-650CPM. No ringing per say like the original hotter sample. More concentrated localities seem to be ringed however. There is also what appears to be dendritic manganese associated in the host material.

11th Aug 2020 00:07 UTCRichard Gunter Expert

Hi Conor:

Those are going to be interesting basements for a housing development with all that radioactivity. Perhaps you might alert the town of Penticton so that at least they know of the localities existence.

11th Aug 2020 01:11 UTCconor Whyte

Yes, I was thinking about doing this. The entire locality sits on indigenous land and is being developed by a local housing development company.

Radon levels are already known to be elevated in the locality. Measured a few drainage ditches and got 300-600CPM which is likely from either Thorium or Uranium progeny or a result of rock dust from drilling the deposit site.

The most moronic thing about all this is our province doesn't have a dedicated Radon monitoring system in place. It should be mandated especially for regions in and around the Okanagan.

Edit:

The sample is definitely Uraniferous, definitely not Thorium. The spectrum posted above shows the typical Uranium decay progeny and was done over a 1800 sec/ 30 minute period.

Now I am thinking/leaning towards a possible variety of Gummite due to the splotchy encrusting/waxy nature of the particular mineral.

Anyone disagree or agree?

11th Aug 2020 10:50 UTCHerwig Pelckmans

Hi Conor,

Could you tell us some more on the gamma spectral analysis you do at home?

What device do you use to do this? Is such a thing expensive?

Curious to learn more about it!

Cheers, Herwig

ACAM & MKA (Belgium)

11th Aug 2020 17:35 UTCconor Whyte

I use a 1.5" dia NaI/Tl Scionix Holland scintillation detector rebuilt by iRad labs in Stuart Florida, and a Gamma spectacular GS-USB-PRO. On my current setup I use a RedPitaya to directly sample the incoming signal from the scintillator so I can stream it to multiple computers simultaneously over a network.

- I calibrated the unit with 5uCi Cs137 source then ran the sample for 30 minutes.

The total price of a refurb scintillation detector (NaI/Tl) is around $400USD - $600USD

It's good enough to do basic gamma spectroscopy. CeBr3 scintillators for doing high resolution spectroscopy are +9K USD for the same size. Out of reach for most people.

The Spectroscopy driver (GS-USB-Pro) is about $400USD and redpitaya is around 360Euros

Cheaper than going with a Camberra turnkey system or other for +10K USD

11th Aug 2020 17:38 UTCconor Whyte

Scintillator with a Th232 sample ( Thorium Dioxide) being measured.

Scionix Holland 1.5" NaI/Tl detector @ 550V input

13th Aug 2020 19:33 UTCHerwig Pelckmans

Very interesting, Conor!

Thanks for showing.

Cheers, Herwig

ACAM & MKA (Belgium)

11th Aug 2020 10:57 UTCPaul De Bondt Manager

Looks like this locality too : https://www.mindat.org/loc-4422.html

Keep safe.

13th Aug 2020 07:31 UTCconor Whyte

Any other suggestions about what this could be?

Is Gummite something that could make these markings? ( Gummite is not a technical name for a particular mineral but rather a group of secondary uranium minerals)

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