Leaching behavior of U and V from a Korean uranium ore using Na2CO3 and KOH

• Published in: Geosystem engineering Vol. 17; no. 2; pp. 113 - 119
• Main Authors: Kim, Ji-Hye, Cho, Hee-Chan, Han, Kenneth
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis 01.01.2014; 한국자원공학회
• Subjects: carbonate leaching; Korean uranium ore; uranium; vanadium; 자원공학
• ISSN: 1226-9328; 2166-3394
• DOI: 10.1080/12269328.2014.929510

Leaching behavior of uranium and vanadium from a uranium ore deposit found in Koi-san, Chung-buck Province, Korea has been studied using KOH-Na 2 CO 3 . The pH of the solution was controlled to 10, using 1.0 mol/l KOH solution. The effects of the concentration of Na 2 CO 3 , temperature, and particle size on the overall leaching behavior were closely investigated and results were very promising. For example, the leaching of U and V was found to be more than 90% and 65%, respectively, at 80°C after 3 h leaching. The activation energy of uranium and vanadium was found to be 7.4 and 7.9 kcal/mol, indicating that both chemical reaction and mass transfer were important in this reaction.