Vanadium uranate

For the treatment of camotite several methods are available. The method recommended by the United States Bureau of Mines2 is as follows The ore is leached with concentrated nitric acid at 100° C., neutralised with caustic soda, and barium chloride and sulphuric acid added to the solution to precipitate the radium as barium-radium sulphate. The precipitate settles in three or four days, after which time the clear liquid is decanted into tanks and is treated with excess of boiling sodium carbonate solution in order to precipitate any iron, aluminium and chromium present. The solution now contains sodium uranyl carbonate and sodium vanadate. It is nearly neutralised with nitric acid, and caustic soda is added in sufficient quantity to precipitate the uranium as sodium uranate. After filtering, the remaining solution is neutralised with nitric acid and ferrous sulphate added, whereupon iron vanadate is thrown down. By this method it is claimed that 90 per cent, of the radium, all the uranium, and 50 per cent, of the vanadium in the camotite are recovered. 

On a commercial scale uranous oxide is prepared by fusing at red heat a mixture of 35 parts of common salt and 20 parts of sodium uranate with 1 part of powdered charcoal, the heating being continued until the escape of gas ceases. After cooling, the mass is lixiviated with water, and the residue of uranous oxide is washed by decantation. By washing with 5 per cent, hydrochloric acid, any iron, aluminium, or vanadium compounds may be removed, and a commercial product of purity equivalent to 97 per cent. U3O3 is obtained. If the uranous oxide is required for the production of ferro-uranium, the complete removal of iron is not necessary. 

The Haynes-Engle process consists in digesting the coarsely ground ore with a solution of sodium carbonate until the uranium and vanadium are extracted. Sodium hydroxide is added to precipitate sodium uranate and slaked lime to precipitate the vanadium. 

A large number of inorganic layer crystals such as micas, sodium silicates, niobate, uranate, vanadate, titanate, zirconium phosphate, graphitic acids, crystalline silicic acids, vanadium oxyhydrate, calcium phosphoric acid esters, and titanium disulfide develop alkyl crystals between their rigid crystal layers by ion exchange with, for example, alkyl ammonium salts and by intercalation inorganic... 

Because vanadium pentoxide, V Oj, which coprecipitates simultaneously with sodium uran-ate, is always present in the impure yellow cake, at levels ranging from 5 to 6 wt.%, it must be removed by roasting the impure yellow cake with sodium carbonate at S60°C for 30 min, and after cooling the solid calcinated mass is leached with water to extract the soluble sodium vanadate, NaVOj. The leached product is filtered and the washed yellow cake is dried, while the solution from which vanadium can be recovered is stored. 

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