Author:
Abdeshahi A.,Outokesh M.,Nejad D. Ghoddocy,Zare M. Habibi,Sadeghi M. H.
Abstract
In this research, the recovery of uranium from the phosphate ore of the Sheikh Habil-Iran mine using flotation/calcination-leaching processes has been investigated. A 75–150 μm phosphate ore particle size, sodium oleate as a collector with a concentration of 2,000 g/ton of rock, pH = 10, and 5 min flotation time were obtained as the optimum parameters of flotation using the reverse method, leading to phosphate ore with a grade of 180 ppm UO2, 36.1% P₂O₅, 7.22% SiO2, and CaO/P₂O₅ = 1.23. The optimum calcination parameters were selected as 100 μm phosphate ore particles size at D80, 900°C temperature, and 2 h heating time, which resulted in phosphate ore with a grade of 173 ppm UO2 and 31.9% P₂O₅. An L/S (liquid to solid ratio) = 5, 3 M sulfuric acid concentration, 80°C temperature, and 5 h leaching time were obtained as the optimum leaching parameters using the response surface methodological approach. The efficiency of uranium recovery from phosphate ore pre-treated by flotation and calcination methods was 84.2% and 75.2%, respectively. The results indicated that flotation has superiority over calcination as a pre-treatment method of phosphate ore in the Sheikh Habil-Iran mine.
Reference25 articles.
1. Calcareous phosphates and their calcined products;Abouzeid;Miner. Sci. Eng.,1980
2. Physical and thermal treatment of phosphate ores—an overview;Abouzeid;Int. J. mineral Process.,2008
3. Optimum flotation conditions for Al‐jalamid phosphate rock;Al-Fariss;Dev. Chem. Eng. Mineral Process.,1993
4. Uranium extraction mechanism from analytical grade phosphoric acid using D2EHPA and synergistic D2EHPA-TOPO mixture;Ali;Int. J. Nucl. Energy Sci. Eng.,2012
5. Evaluation of the physicochemical, heavy metal and radiological contamination from phosphogypsum discharges of the phosphoric acid production unit on the coast of El Jadida Province in Morocco;Arhouni;J. Radioanalytical Nucl. Chem.,2023