Investigations onto the Recovery of Uranium and Rare Earth Elements from High Sulfate Concentrations Leach Liquor of Abu Hamata Sandy claystone ore material via Anion-Exchange Resin process

Abstract

Excess of free sulfate anions in a sulfate leach solution became an offending object for uranium recovery by using Amberlite IRA 400 anion exchange resin. This is because, not only uranium U loading efficiency is reduced significantly, but also the selectivity for the uranyl sulfate complex, [UO 2 (SO 4) 3 ] 4over ferric sulfate complex, [FeO (SO 4)]-, is reduced. The present study concerned with the feasibility of using Amberlite IRA 400 anion exchange resin for effective recovery of uranium from highly concentrated sulfate solution of Abu Hamata sandy claystone ore sample. The latter solution was found assaying 0.45 g/L and 26 g/L of U and SO 4-, respectively, together with 0.32 g/L, 0.05 g/ L, 0.008 g/L and 2.3 g/L of rare earth elements, (REEs), V, B as well as Cl-, respectively. Such solution was treated with solid CaCO 3 at different pH values ranged from 1 upto 3 for precipitating the excess free sulfate. The obtained results indicate that, U extraction efficiency has been highly improved from 48.4% up to 94.4% at pH 1.8.

Insight on uranium recovery valorization from El Sela highly altered granitic rocks, South Eastern Desert, Egypt

“…The presence of interfering anions, particularly HSO4 -, SO4 2-, and H2PO4 -, as well as the cation of Fe 3+ , which compete with U anionic complexes on the resin sites and reduce its loading capacity. Amer et al, 2017 [14]. In this context, the lower extraction efficiency of U (32.2%) emphasized the presence of high concentration of interfering SO4 2anions (120 g/L).…”

“…In this context, the lower extraction efficiency of U (32.2%) emphasized the presence of high concentration of interfering SO4 2anions (120 g/L). These relatively high concentrations of SO4 2anions would make the U loading process more difficult when using D216 anion-exchange resin [32][33][34]14]. Consequently, it was very important to reduce the concentration of sulfate anions to solve this difficult and increasing U loading efficiency.…”

“…The acidic and alkaline leaching methods are most common used for U leaching from its ores; however, acid leaching is extra broadly used than the alkaline. The choice of the suitable leaching method and agent type is mainly depending on the ore's chemical and mineralogical composition of ore materials as they are considered as pre-requisites for the realization of successful processing and recovery of the present metal values [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In this context, the first trial to recover about 99% of U content from G. El Sela granitic rocks was done by Abu Khoziem [19] through applying 300 g/L H2SO4 for 4 h at 100 º C and S/L ratio of 1/2.…”