Acid leaching, description

As an example of the acid-leaching, solvent extraction class of uranium-concentration processes, a description will be given of the process used in the large uranium mill of the Kerr-McGee Corporation at Grants, New Mexico. This has been condensed from a 1960 paper by Hazen... 

In the past, the recovery of uranium from the pregnant liquor solution usually involved precipitation as uranium oxide (UjOg) concentrates (UOC). But as the quality of UOC obtained by precipitation from acid leach is not very good ion exchange and solvent extraction are used in most plants nowadays. Precipitation from carbonate leaching produces a reasonably pure uranium concentrate. A detailed description of these processes and the operational and the economic considerations is beyond the scope of this book and can be found elsewhere (Grenthe 2006). 

The combined use of nitrogen adsorption and CTEM analysis leads to a coherent description of the formation of secondary pores in zeolites during deaiumination by classical techniques (steam and acid leaching treatments). 

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