Los Ochos Mine - Gunnison County, Colorado

Uranium Mineral Collecting

Interesting Facts

Uranium has been discovered in many mines in the mineral belt in the central part Colorado but has also been found in relative abundance in the western part of the state mainly from sedimentary deposits. These sedimentary deposits also yielded radium. It took approx 200-300 tons of rock to produce 1 gram of radium but at approx $140,000 per gram it was very profitable. Some of the uranium and radium recovered in Colorado between 1898 and 1920 was sent to Marie Curie in Paris during her famous experiments on radioactivity. Pure uranium is a silvery white metal almost as dense as gold but uranium does not occur in its pure form in nature. Instead, it forms easily with oxygen to product many different stable minerals. These minerals are the ones that can be found by collectors throughout the state of Colorado if you know what you are looking for.

Site Details

Elevation - 8, 462
Vehicle Access - Easy
Foot access - Difficult
GPS coordinates - N38°22.077 W106°45.543
Maps used - Colorado Gazetteer, National Geographic Trails Illustrated map, Microsoft Streets & Trips
Mineral occurrences - (13 reported)
Minerals found by author - Autunite, Uraninite or Uranophane

Directions- From Gunnison, go East on US Hwy 50 to CO Hwy 114. At CO Hwy 114 go south to UU-13. Follow UU-13 until you see the mine on the hill to your left.

Site Information & Mineral Collecting