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Author: Subject: Thorium nitrate from thorianite
SHADYCHASE54
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[*] posted on 17-5-2011 at 09:15
Thorium nitrate from thorianite


Hello,
thank you in advance for any aid anyone may provide as I was wondering if anyone has any practical experience with the preperation of thorium salts from thorianite ore? I have around a 250 gram. sample of the ore and as it has a high throium IV oxide content I was wondering the proper procedure to convert the oxide into salt form. Ultimately I want convert the oxide into the nitrate; I would also like to find a way of removing the impurites from the ore in hopes of obtaining a relatively pure sample of the salt. Like I stated in the begining of this I would truly appreciate any suggestions; thanks all for your continued indulgence regarding my little projects and thusly resulting queries.

Scince. SHADYCHASE54
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Mixell
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[*] posted on 17-5-2011 at 09:33


Wikipedia claims it to contain uranium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium and neodymium outside of thorium oxide (70% of the ore is thorium oxide).
Honestly, I think it will be very hard to separate the thorium out of all of those other metals.
This mineral has a relatively good price (150$/100 gram), I think it is better to sell it and buy some thorium salts, because purifying it is not very practical.
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[*] posted on 17-5-2011 at 10:24


They managed to extract thorium from rocks back in the 19th c. I'm sure someone could do it today.
What would trouble me more would be the daughter products which are much more radioactive.

Selling it and buying what you want is a more sensible suggestion than trying to dissolve the rock.
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SHADYCHASE54
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[*] posted on 17-5-2011 at 15:25


Thanks for the responces, I would most definately like to simply sell of the thorianite and buy the thorium nitrate that I desire however, this chemical is apparently not within my reach. Of course if anyone on the system here would part with 50-100gr. of Th(NO3)4 at a resonable price I would love a U2U. Also I have one more question I might be able to obtain a relatively pure sample of ThO2 what method would I use to convert the oxide to the nitrate?

SHADYCHASE54
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