Thorianite, a new mineral from ceylon

Abstract

The mineral which forms the subject of this paper was collected in Ceylon during the progress of the mineral survey of the island, which was commenced in 1903 under Professor Dunstan’s supervision, with the principal object of determining the extent to which economic minerals, such as graphite, mica, etc., occur, and if possible of discovering other minerals of commercial importance. The minerals collected by Mr. A. K. Coomaraswamy and Mr. James Parsons, the officers entrusted with the survey in Ceylon, are submitted to examination and analysis in the Scientific and Technical Department of the Imperial Institute, and are subsequently subjected to such technical trials as may be necessary in order to ascertain their precise uses and to determine their value. Among the materials thus received from Ceylon at the Imperial Institute was a small quantity of a heavy black mineral occurring chiefly in small roughly cubical crystals. This mineral was, in the first instance, furnished to the officers of the mineral survey by Mr. W. D. Holland, who believed it to be uraninite or pitchblende. He had previously sent specimens to several persons in.this country under this name.