Recuperação de urânio de rejeito de mina por meio de lixiviação alcalina / Recovery of uranium from mine wastes by alkaline leaching

AUTOR(ES)
FONTE

IBICT - Instituto Brasileiro de Informação em Ciência e Tecnologia

DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

23/04/2010

RESUMO

Appropriate management of wastes is one of the most important environmental problems, particularly concerning the tailings of mining activities. Interim storage of the tailings at incorrect places pending treatment demands an urgent solution. The Osamu Utsumi Mine located in the city of Caldas, Minas Gerais, has faced such problem. The waste of the mine consists of an alkaline sludge produced during pH neutralization of acid drainage and is rich in several metals, including uranium. The recovery of uranium by a hydrometallurgical technique can be one alternative for the reuse of this material, alkaline leaching is one of the most indicated techniques to attain that purpose. The present work aimed to develop a specific leaching process for the recovery of uranium present in the sludge and to concentrate the metal in the leaching liquor in a effective way. The following parameters were assessed: solid percentages, residence time, temperature, selection of extracting agents, concentration of reagents and evaluating whether or not to apply oxidants. Results show the possibility of extracting 100% of the uranium contained in the sludge. The better conditions to reach the maximum solubilization are: 10% solid content, 0.50 molL-1 Na2CO3, 1.00 molL-1 NaHCO3, and 20 hours reaction time at room temperature. The chemical characterization of the sample by energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDX) indicated Ca, S, Mn and Al as the main constituents of the sludge, and 0.25 % of U3O8. The crystallized phases present in the sample, according the X-ray diffraction, are ettringite (Ca6Al2(SO4)3.(OH)12.26H2O) as a predominant phase followed by gypsum (CaSO4.2H2O), calcite (CaCO3) and bassanite (CaSO4.0.5H2O) as the minority. The concentration step was composed by evaluate of precipitation technique and ionic exchange. In the precipitation stage, 10.0 moL-1 NaOH solution was added to the pulp to reach a pH of 12. The percentage of uranium precipitated from the liquor was 62% and the concentration of metal contained in the precipitate correspond a 6.5%. The low recovery is due to the excess of carbonate ions in the liquor that influenced in the precipitation and ionic exchange. The excess of carbonate in the precipitate hinders the destabilization of the Na4UO2(CO3)3 soluble complex and in the case of ionic exchange there is a competition between CO32- ion and [UO2(CO3)3]4- anion for the adsorption sites of the resins. Based on this fact it was necessary to submit the solution generated in the lixiviation stage to three different tests: heating, lime addition and dilution of the liquor with the acid mine drainage to eliminate the excess of carbonate ions. The aim of this procedure is to obtain a product with suitable characteristics to allow subsequent uranium adsorption by the resin. The adsorption capacities of the two resins used - DOWEX RPU and IRA 910 U were around 65.0 and 60.0 mg U/g of resin, respectively. Both adsorption capacities were considered satisfactory.

ASSUNTO(S)

mineralogia uranio lixiviação recuperação extração por solvente minas hidrometalurgia uranium recovery solvent extraction mines hidrometallurgy

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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