| Abstract Scope |
A process for heap leaching (percolation on column) for uranium dioxide, without using an oxidizing agent in sulfuric acid solution was studied. A fractional factorial experimental was developed to examine the main effects and interactions among the factors investigated on the uranium extraction rate; eight unreplicated tests have been carried out to study 4 factors at two levels: sulfuric acid concentration, heap height, particle size range of the ore and the sulfuric acid solution flow. Over 97% extraction yield of uranium was obtained at room temperature with 10 wt% sulfuric acid (100g of acid / 1kg of ore), particle size = 2.8 mm, flow = 7.16 ml/h-1.cm-2 and at the top level of the heap height (60 cm on average). The experimental results show the potential application of the percolation on column for the recovery of uranium from low-grade ores of uranium. |