Ural Mountains

L. Ruthenia, Russia) Berzelius and Osann in 1827 examined the residues left after dissolving crude platinum from the Ural mountains in aqua regia. While Berzelius found no unusual metals, Osann thought he found three new metals, one of which he named ruthenium. In 1844 Klaus, generally recognized as the discoverer, showed that Osann s ruthenium oxide was very impure and that it contained a new metal. Klaus obtained 6 g of ruthenium from the portion of crude platinum that is insoluble in aqua regia. 

A member of the platinum group, ruthenium occurs native with other members of the group in ores found in the Ural mountains and in North and South America. It is also found along with other platinum metals in small but commercial quantities in pentlandite of the Sudbury, Ontario, nickel-mining region, and in pyroxinite deposits of South Africa. 

Platinum occurs native, accompanied by small quantities of iridium, osmium, palladium, ruthenium, and rhodium, all belonging to the same group of metals. These are found in the alluvial deposits of the Ural mountains, of Columbia, and of certain western American states. Sperrylite, occurring with the nickel-bearing deposits of Sudbury, Ontario, is the source of a considerable amount of metal. 

The former Soviet Union constmcted a 262-km, 508-mm dia experimental coal slurry line between the Belovo open-pit coal mine in Siberia s Kuznets basin to an electric power plant at Novosibirsk, using technology developed by Snamprogetti. Testing began in late 1989 and tentative plans call for constmction of two much larger slurry pipelines, each 3000-km long, with capacity to move a total of 33 x 10 t/yr to industrialized areas near the Ural Mountains (27,33). 

At the start of the nineteenth century, platinum was refined in a scientific manner by William Hyde WoUaston, resulting in the successful production of malleable platinum on a commercial scale. During the course of the analytical work, WoUaston discovered paUadium, rhodium, indium, and osmium. Ruthenium was not discovered until 1844, when work was conducted on the composition of platinum ores from the Ural Mountains. 

In the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS, formerly the USSR), nearly 50% of the CIS production comes from Ka2akhstan. Silver is produced from the lead—2inc mines at Ostkamen, Shymkent, and Leninogorsk (ca 1000 t) and also in Russia s Far East, where it is a by-product of the tin deposits near Khabarovsk, and of the copper and gold deposits in the Ural Mountains. 

The first chromium compound was discovered in the Ural mountains of Russia, during the latter half of the eighteenth century. Crocoite [14654-05-8] a natural lead chromate, found immediate and popular use as a pigment because of its beautihil, permanent orange-red color. However, this mineral was very rare, and just before the end of the same century, chromite was identified as a chrome bearing mineral and became the primary source of chromium [7440 7-3] and its compounds (1) (see Chromiumand chromium alloys). 

Initially glass microspheres were used in the 1970s to overcome severe lost circulation problems in the Ural Mountains. The technology has been used in other sites [1189]. Hollow glass beads reduce the density of a drilling fluid and can be used for underbalanced drilling [1199-1201]. Field applications have been reported [73]. 

Similar regions were monitored in other sites of Russia, especially in the South Ural mountains, where the elevated contents of selenium in soils and natural waters coincide with increasing rates of corresponding animal diseases. The analogous biogeochemical provinces have been also monitored in Uzbekistan. 

In 1993 Russia had 48,000 kilometers of pipeline carrying crude oil, 15,000 kilometers for petroleum products, and 140,000 kilometers for natural gas. In recent decades, the natural gas lines have expanded at a much faster rate than the crude oil lines. The main natural gas pipeline, one of the Soviet Union s largest international trade projects, connects the natural gas fields of northern Siberia with most of the countries of Western Europe. Completed in 1984, the line passes nearly 4,000 kilometers across the Ural Mountains, the Volga River, and many other natural obstacles to connect Russian lines with the European system. 

ORIGIN OF NAME "Ruthenium" is derived from the Latin word Ruthenia meaning "Russia," where it is found in the Ural Mountains. 

Ruthenium is found in South America and the Ural Mountains of Russia. There are some minor platinum and ruthenium ores found in the western United States and Canada. All of the radioactive isotopes of ruthenium are produced in nuclear reactors. 

In 1827 or 1828 Gottfried Wilhelm Osann (1796—1866), a well-known German scientist, found in the Ural mountains of Russia what he claimed were several new elements in platinum ores, including ruthenium. However, after his announcement, nothing more happened and he did not withdraw his claim, as did Sniadecki. Some sources now give Osann credit for discovering ruthenium. 

Deposits of ores containing palladium, as well as other metals, are found in Siberia and the Ural Mountains of Russia, Canada, and South Africa, as well as in South America. 

Platinum is the 75th most abundant element and, unlike many elements, is found in its pure elemental form in nature, as are deposits of silver and gold. Platinum is widely distributed over the Earth and is mined mainly in the Ural Mountains in Russia and in South Africa, Alaska, the western United States, Columbia in South America, and Ontario in Canada. When found in the mineral sperryhte (PtAs ), it is dissolved with aqua regia to form a precipitate called sponge that is then converted into platinum metal. It is also recovered as a by-product of nickel mining, mainly in Ontario, Canada. 

Fibers of tourmalines up to 8 inches long have been described from the Alps (Dietrich et al., 1966). Novad and Zak (1970) described shorter and thinner (diameter < 1 micrometer) tourmaline fibers from the Ural mountains. With high birefringence and pleochroism, tourmaline is readily identified by optical examination. It is distinguished from other fibrous silicates... 

Petroleum became the primary source of hydrocarbons for chemical feedstocks, beginning in about 1850 with the discovery of easily extracted cmde oil in eastern Pennsylvania and in the Ural mountains of Russia. The gases from the primary distillation of cmde oil and the light products from FCC, catalyticfreforming, and hydroprocessing are ideal mixtures of C2 to Cg alkanes that can be used to make many chemicals. Petroleum products are also cleaner than those from coal, producing no ash and less sulfur. 

Ruthenium was recognized as a new element hy G.W. Osann in 1828. He found it in insoluhle residues from aqua regia extract of native platinum from alluvial deposits in the Ural mountains of Russia. He named it Ruthen after the Latin name Ruthenia for Russia. The discovery of this element, however, is credited to Klaus who in 1844 found that Osann s ruthenium oxide was very impure and isolated pure Ru metal from crude platinum residues insoluhle in aqua regia. 

In the same year Mining Superintendent von Soymonof had found some of this mineral in the northern part of the Ural Mountains. When Lowitz analyzed it, he concluded that it must be iron chromate... 

Ural mountains, product of, 267. valuation of gold alloys, 287, U anhlng-machlnnst 272-275, water or wash-gLldtag, 201. 

The principal workings known at the present day are those of Australia, in the Southern hemisphere of California, Mexico, and the Appalachian mountains, in North America Brazil, Peru, and Chili, in South America Kordofan and Sofa]a In Africa tire Ural mountains in Siberia and Hungary in Europe. Gold i9 found, however, in smaller quantities in various other places and the Editor will now briefly indicate the J various localities in which it is known to exist, begin-ning with Europe, and conolading with the latest discoveries in Australia. 

Other places where ores are known to occur are Greenland, Bavaria, Finland, Miask in the Ural Mountains, Chanteloube near Limoges in France, California, and Colorado. For recent observations of their occurrence in the British Empire see the references cited.7... 

Pyrochlore.—This is a crude calcium niobate which may also contain appreciable quantities of titanium, thorium and cerium, together with smaller quantities of iron, magnesium, the alkali metals, and fluorine. It does not contain chlorine, and it is of interest in that some specimens are remarkably free from tantalum. It occurs in Norway and near Miask in the Ural Mountains. The ore is brown, forms regular octa-... 

Samarskite occurs in the Ural Mountains, Mitchell County (North Carolina, U.S.A.), Canada, and India. The tantalum content is often small, sometimes nil, and the rare earth oxides, chiefly yttria and ceria, are usually present in considerable number and proportions. The ore is radioactive and contains helium. It forms black, orthorhombic crystals. The density varies from 4-2 to G-2.5 It has been suggested that the niobium and tantalum are disintegration products of compounds of yttrium and cerium with the two higher homologues of manganese,4 masurium, and rhenium. 

ALEXANDRITE. A variety of chrysoberyl, originally found in the schists of the Ural Mountains. It absorbs yellow and blue light rays to such an extent dial it appears emerald green by daylight but columbine-red by artificial light. It is used as a gem, and was named in honor of Czar Alexander II of Russia See also Chrysoberyl. 

Amethysts are found in the Ural Mountains. India. Sri Lanka. Madagascar, Uruguay. Brazil, the Thunder Bay district of Lake Superior in Ontario, and Nova Scotia in the United States, in Michigan. Virginia. North Carolina. Montana, and Maine,... 

Brochantite is a secondary mineral occurring in the oxidized zones with other copper minerals, and is found in the Ural Mountains, in Rumania, in Sardinia Cornwall. England Chile. In the United States this mineral has been found aL Bisbee, Arizona, Utah, in the Tinlic DislricL and in Inyo County, California. Brochantite was named for Brochant de Villiers. 

Among the many European localities might be mentioned Cornwall. England, ihe Ural Mountains, and Rumania. It occurs also in the Congo, South West Africa, Peru. Mexico, and Alaska. In the United States it is found at Bristol. Connecticut, in fine crystals. Montana. Tennessee. Arizona, Nevada, and California. 

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