Studies on uranium recovery from a uranium-bearing phosphatic sandstone by a combined heap leaching-liquid-gel extraction process. 1—Heap leaching

China is one of the most rapidly growing economies in the world and this growth is underpinned by growing demand for natural resources to meet base and precious metals and energy requirements. Even though China is currently the largest producer of several mined commodities, such as gold and the rare earth elements, meeting the future demands for metal consumption will require China to either develop new mining projects or increase material imports. In terms of nuclear energy requirements the country still depends on uranium imports. To meet this growth in Chinese demand, there has been a strong interest in technologies suited for mining and processing of low grade ore bodies. Percolation leaching methods have been very effective in extracting metals from low grade ores, which could not otherwise be economically extracted. Percolation leaching techniques, such as heap leaching, dump leaching, bio-leaching and in-situ leaching have been extensively employed in the Chinese mining industry in recent decades to primarily extract gold, copper, rare earth elements and uranium. This paper discusses the application of various percolation leaching techniques in the Chinese mining industry and offers a scientific and extensive literature overview on technology developments in commercial percolation leaching operations in China. It also presents the current challenges of percolation leaching and recent technological and research developments and regulatory frameworks pertaining to the application of percolation leaching in China. The future directions of percolation leaching in the Chinese mining industry will also be presented to extract the low grade natural resources both economically and in an environmentally sustainable manner.

show abstract

“…The main chemical reactions occurring during uranium ore heap leaching are as follows (Shakir et al, 1992; IAEA, 1993; Ding et al, 2013):…”

Section: Uranium Percolation Leachingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The current state and future directions of percolation leaching in the Chinese mining industry: Challenges and opportunities

Ilankoon

Tang

Ghorbani

et al. 2018

Minerals Engineering

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our experiment was conducted in an open system where the dissolution of oxygen from the air occurs and in principle U(IV) can also be oxidised directly by the oxygen. However, molecular oxygen is a relatively inefficient oxidant for uranium (Shakir et al, 1992).…”

Section: Uranium Concentrations and 234 U/ 238 U Activity Ratio In Acmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding sulphuric acid leaching of uranium from ore by means of 234U/238U activity ratio as an indicator

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…The acidic leaching compared to alkaline have advantages include; more effective especially with hard ores, low temperature and time-consuming [18]. Sulfuric acid is the commonly used due to the high solubility of the produced uranyl sulfate complexes [19,20]. When the gangue materials contain high silica or fluorine minerals, sulfuric acid leaching is preferred, because of its costs less than alkaline leaching beside dissolve uranium minerals more rapidly.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alkaline leaching of uranium from El-Sibaiya East Phosphorite in the presence of sodium peroxide

Manaa

Negm

El‐Magied

2018

J. Nucl. Radiochem. Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Chemical, mineralogical and radiometric investigation studies were executed on a representative phosphorite sample collected from El-Sibaiya East area to evaluate its suitability for the alkaline leaching of its uranium content. The uranium alkaline leaching was carried out in three phases using Na 2 CO 3 and a mixture of Na 2 CO 3 / NaHCO 3 with/without an oxidant (Na 2 O 2 ). Factors include; Na 2 CO 3 , NaHCO 3 , Na 2 O 2 concentrations; digestion temperature, reaction time and ore fineness were studied and optimized. The results pointed to that the best leaching efficiency of uranium (83.2%) was conducted using the mixture solution of Na 2 CO 3 /NaHCO 3 (0.5M) in the presence of 2.5% Na 2 O 2 (w/w). The other conditions affected the leaching process were studied and optimized as 80 o C (leaching temperature), 3h (leaching time), 44μm (ore grain size) and a solid/liquid ratio of 2/25. The leached uranium was recovered by precipitation using NaOH solution where the precipitated product was defined by the XRD as sodium diuranate (Na 2 U 2 O 7 ) of high purity.

show abstract

Studies on uranium recovery from a uranium-bearing phosphatic sandstone by a combined heap leaching-liquid-gel extraction process. 1—Heap leaching

Cited by 19 publications

References 5 publications

The current state and future directions of percolation leaching in the Chinese mining industry: Challenges and opportunities

The current state and future directions of percolation leaching in the Chinese mining industry: Challenges and opportunities

Understanding sulphuric acid leaching of uranium from ore by means of 234U/238U activity ratio as an indicator

Alkaline leaching of uranium from El-Sibaiya East Phosphorite in the presence of sodium peroxide

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About