At that time very little was known about the metallurgy of uranium, so there was a lot of experimenting at various sites. Here's the chemical process of turning it from ore to a salt, which is a general first step in refining: https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Processes/UraniumMining/uranium-refining.html

This is quite interesting, both because of the historical groping and because of all the uranium sources, including Canadian. Having somewhat purified the uranium and found ways to dissolve it, the next step was to make actual metal out of it. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Processes/PlutoniumProduction/plutonium-fabrication.html

More experimenting. So far, silver is not mentioned at all, so if you aren't into historic chemistry I will say it's pretty dense, although the section on procurement might be related to Uranium 1. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Processes/UraniumMining/uranium-mining.html

Still no silver, but it does mention aluminum several times. At that time, silver would probably been easier, maybe even cheaper, than aluminum. Did you know that one year there was such a shortage of copper that silver was substituted in wires?

At that time very little was known about the metallurgy of uranium, so there was a lot of experimenting at various sites. Here's the chemical process of turning it from ore to a salt, which is a general first step in refining: https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Processes/UraniumMining/uranium-refining.html

This is quite interesting, both because of the historical groping and because of all the uranium sources, including Canadian. Having somewhat purified the uranium and found ways to dissolve it, the next step was to make actual metal out of it. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Processes/PlutoniumProduction/plutonium-fabrication.html

More experimenting. So far, silver is not mentioned at all, so if you aren't into historic chemistry I will say it's pretty dense, although the section on procurement might be related to Uranium 1. https://www.osti.gov/opennet/manhattan-project-history/Processes/UraniumMining/uranium-mining.html

Still no silver, but it does mention aluminum several times. At that time, silver would probably been easier, maybe even cheaper, than silver. Did you know that one year there was such a shortage of copper that silver was substituted in wires?