Discovery of Radium Hill Mining FieldPrint Page

The monument commemorates the discovery of the Radium Hill Mining Field by Arthur John Smith in 1906.

The site was first pegged for mining in 1906 after prospector Arthur John Smith inadvertently discovered a radioactive material at a location approximately 40 kilometres East South East of Olary. Smith mistook the dark coloured ore he found for tin oxide or wolfram (tungsten). His samples were sent to Adelaide University where young Sydney geologist and future Antarctic explorer, Douglas Mawson found the ore to contain radium and uranium.

Mawson named the ore davidite after geologist and Antarctic explorer, Sir Edgeworth David. The mine was initially called "Smith's Carnotite Mine" (a similar uranium-bearing mineral) and in September 1906 Mawson proposed the name "Radium Hill." Smith worked the mine for the next two years before allowing the lease to lapse. Adjoining leases stretched for 5 kilometres along the lode, with one being half-owned by Mawson.

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