An Investigation Of Uranium Leaching And Hydrometallurgy Process In In-Situ Blast-Leaching

In order to develop a more efficient process in uranium extraction to recover uranium from low grade vein-group uranium deposit, the in situ blast-leaching hydrometallurgical process was modified and optimized in this work. Based on the research work, the newly developed technology has been successfully applied in industry production, which generated significant benefits in both economy and society.Six chapters are included in the dissertation. Chapter 1 reviewed the history and the traditional technologies for uranium mining. Special attention was paid on the history, development and prospect of the in-situ blast leaching process in uranium mining, which is tightly related with the dissertation work.In Chapter 2, a higher column leaching out law was obtained from the investigation of specific uranium ores, which was subjected to study. The particle size distribution of the ores was reformulated according to the calculation from the Rosin—Rammlar equation and the specific industry blasting test parameters. Our investigation results have provided crucial parameters for the commercial scale up mining of specific uranium ores.In Chapter 3, the laboratory simulation results of the ores soakage radius and the parameters of multihole jetpipe were discussed. The empirical soakage radius equation ,derived from the microirrigation and the calculations of the liquid flow resistence and the flow distribution for the liquid delivery network system, provided a technology support for the liquid delivery system design in our practical industry pilot scale up.In Chapter 4, the industrial testing of the liquid delivery by drilling-lixiviation was introduced. By making use of the principle of the micro-irrigation theory, the results of the simulating calculation, and the new drilling tools developed by us, we tested our drilling-lixiviation methodology. The uniformity of liquid delivery reached 89.72%. Based on the technology, we have successfully resolved the liquid delivery problem in loose orebody after blasting.In Chapter 5, the choice of the experimental parameters in ionic exchange process was discussed. By choosing suitable ionic exchange resin and eluent, and based on our experimental results of adsorption and elutriation, we settled the optimal ionic exchange parameters. The readsorption investigation of uranium loaded resin was also discussed in this chapter.In Chapter 6, the yellow cake precipitation process was introduced. According to the new national criteria of diuranate, parallel precipitation experiments were conducted in our laboratory by using different precipitation reagents. Through these studies, optimal precipitation reagent was obtained.