The teachability of radium from uranium ores

CIM Bulletin, Vol. 80, No. 908, 1987

K.E. HAQUE, Leaching Section, CANMET Ottawa, Ontario

Radium is selectively teachable from uranium ores with various types of lixiviants. Among a number of lixiviants tried on Midwest Lake uranium ore, KCl provided the highest per cent of radium extraction (60%-65%). Leach results further confirmed that a certain portion of Ra is not amenable to KCl leaching. More than 99% of the dissolved radium could be removed by treating the KCl leach liquor with barite or with radium selective complexer resin (XFS-43230 resin of Dow Chemical Inc.) or by precipitating as RaBaSO4. Uranium teachings from the Ra-preleached uranium ores indicate that radium leaching prior to uranium may be applied as an extension to the conventional or alternative (i.e. acid chloride) leaching process of uranium ores in order to yield environmentally acceptable tailings (in terms of radium in the solids).

Keywords: Hydrometallurgy, Radium extraction, Potassium chloride leaching, Sodium chloride leaching, Calcium chloride leaching, Potassium bromide leaching, Potassium nitrate leaching, Sodium acetate leaching, Na2-EDTA leaching, Water leaching, Uranium ore leaching, Selective radium leaching, Radium preleaching, Radium recovery, Leaching.