Article
Article name REDUCTION OF PROCESS LOSSES OF URANIUM DURING UNDERGROUND LEACHING DUE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF URANYL HYDROXIDE
Authors Ovseychuk V.. ,
Zozulya A.. ,
Bibliographic description
Category Earth science
DOI 669.21/23;57.66; 622
DOI 10.21209/2227-9245-2019-25-4-4-12
Article type scientific
Annotation Due to the depletion of rich areas of deposits, it is impossible to increase reserves due to geological exploration, high cost of the traditional mining method, used to produce ore with the production of finished products-uranium oxide – at the hydrometallurgical plant of PJSC “Priargun production mining and chemical Association named after E. Р. Slavsky” is experiencing difficulties associated with the fall in the level of production and profitability. The implementation of the heap leaching method with the use of X-ray radiometric separation of ore mass was the most important factor of output on a break-even level in 2016. As the researchers note, including the authors of this article, a comprehensive introduction of geotechnological methods of mining (underground and heap leaching) will allow to engage in testing of temporary inactivity-wide (poor-balance and off-balance) sections of the Streltsovsky group of deposits and this will increase the amount of recoverable reserves by 10…30 %. in the long term. Technological difficulties in ore preparation, lack of funds for the creation of the necessary infrastructure, lack of trained personnel, and, most importantly, high losses of the strategic component in the production process are the limiting factors for the introduction of block underground leaching. Pilot testing of the block underground leaching at PJSC “PPMCA named after E.P. Slavsky” made it possible to assess the effectiveness of this technology, identify weaknesses and recommendations for their elimination at the stage of preparation for operation of the unit and in the process of leaching, which in the future will increase the recovery rate to 70…75 %. In this article, the authors propose another way to improve the efficiency of leaching, i.e. to extract the proportion of the useful component, which is considered to be unrecoverable and relates to operational losses – precipitating uranyl hydroxide. Such losses are estimated at 10…20 % or more. Measures to reduce them are seen by the authors in the regulation of the leaching process by changing the acidity of the medium and optimal filling of the chambers of operational blocks with ore material. Thus, it is proposed to make a purposeful management of physical and chemical methods of production, taking into account the peculiarities of radicals’ forma-tion without additional oxidants and surfactants
Key words Key words: block underground leaching; borehole underground leaching; uranium ore; uranium hydroxide; reversal; productive solution; acidity; productive front; acid front; separation; chamber filling
Article information Ovseychuk V., Zozulya A. Reduction of process losses of uranium during under-ground leaching due to the dissolution of uranyl hydroxide // Transbaikal State University Journal, 2019, vol. 25, no. 4, pp.4-12
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Full articleREDUCTION OF PROCESS LOSSES OF URANIUM DURING UNDERGROUND LEACHING DUE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF URANYL HYDROXIDE