Abstract
The Caetité uranium mill was commissioned in 2000 to produce about 340 t U per year from an uranium ore averaging 0.29% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. This production is sufficient to supply the two operating nuclear power plants in the country. As the Brazilian government has recently confirmed its plan to start building another ones from 2009, the uranium production will have to expand its capacity in the next two years. This paper describes the changes in the milling process that are being evaluated in order to not only increase the production but also the uranium recovery, to fulfil the increasing local demand. The heap leaching process will be changed to conventional tank agitated leaching of ground ore slurry in sulphuric acid medium. Batch and pilot plant essays have shown that the uranium recovery can increase from the 77% historical average to about 93%. As the use of sodium chloride as the stripping agent has presented detrimental effects in the extraction and stripping process, two alternatives are being evaluated for the uranium recovery from the PLS: (a) uranium peroxide precipitation at controlled pH from a PLS that was firstly neutralized and filtered. Batch essays have shown good results with a final
More>>
Gomiero, L. A.;
Scassiotti Filho, W.;
Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br;
[1]
Cunha, J. W.;
[2]
Morais, C. A.
[3]
- Indústrias Nucleares do Brasil S/A — INB, Caetité, BA (Brazil)
- Instituto de Engenharia Nuclear-IEN/CNEN, Rio de Janeiro, RJ (Brazil)
- Centro do Desenvolvimento da Tec. Nuclear-CDTN/CNEN, Belo Horizonte, MG (Brazil)
Citation Formats
Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A.
Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production.
IAEA: N. p.,
2014.
Web.
Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., & Morais, C. A.
Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production.
IAEA.
Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A.
2014.
"Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production."
IAEA.
@misc{etde_22320773,
title = {Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production}
author = {Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A.}
abstractNote = {The Caetité uranium mill was commissioned in 2000 to produce about 340 t U per year from an uranium ore averaging 0.29% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. This production is sufficient to supply the two operating nuclear power plants in the country. As the Brazilian government has recently confirmed its plan to start building another ones from 2009, the uranium production will have to expand its capacity in the next two years. This paper describes the changes in the milling process that are being evaluated in order to not only increase the production but also the uranium recovery, to fulfil the increasing local demand. The heap leaching process will be changed to conventional tank agitated leaching of ground ore slurry in sulphuric acid medium. Batch and pilot plant essays have shown that the uranium recovery can increase from the 77% historical average to about 93%. As the use of sodium chloride as the stripping agent has presented detrimental effects in the extraction and stripping process, two alternatives are being evaluated for the uranium recovery from the PLS: (a) uranium peroxide precipitation at controlled pH from a PLS that was firstly neutralized and filtered. Batch essays have shown good results with a final calcined precipitate averaging 99% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. Conversely the results obtained at the first pilot plant essay has shown that the precipitation conditions of the continuous process calls for further evaluation. The pilot plant is being improved and another essay will be carried out. (b) uranium extraction with a tertiary amine followed by stripping with concentrated sulphuric acid solution. Efforts are being made to recover the excess sulphuric acid from the pregnant stripping solution to enhance the economic viability of the process and to avoid the formation of a large quantity of gypsum in the pre-neutralization step before the uranium peroxide precipitation. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2014}
month = {May}
}
title = {Converting the Caetité Mill Process to Enhance Uranium Recovery and Expand Production}
author = {Gomiero, L. A., Scassiotti Filho, W., Veras, A., E-mail: gomiero@inb.gov.br, Cunha, J. W., and Morais, C. A.}
abstractNote = {The Caetité uranium mill was commissioned in 2000 to produce about 340 t U per year from an uranium ore averaging 0.29% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. This production is sufficient to supply the two operating nuclear power plants in the country. As the Brazilian government has recently confirmed its plan to start building another ones from 2009, the uranium production will have to expand its capacity in the next two years. This paper describes the changes in the milling process that are being evaluated in order to not only increase the production but also the uranium recovery, to fulfil the increasing local demand. The heap leaching process will be changed to conventional tank agitated leaching of ground ore slurry in sulphuric acid medium. Batch and pilot plant essays have shown that the uranium recovery can increase from the 77% historical average to about 93%. As the use of sodium chloride as the stripping agent has presented detrimental effects in the extraction and stripping process, two alternatives are being evaluated for the uranium recovery from the PLS: (a) uranium peroxide precipitation at controlled pH from a PLS that was firstly neutralized and filtered. Batch essays have shown good results with a final calcined precipitate averaging 99% U{sub 3}O{sub 8}. Conversely the results obtained at the first pilot plant essay has shown that the precipitation conditions of the continuous process calls for further evaluation. The pilot plant is being improved and another essay will be carried out. (b) uranium extraction with a tertiary amine followed by stripping with concentrated sulphuric acid solution. Efforts are being made to recover the excess sulphuric acid from the pregnant stripping solution to enhance the economic viability of the process and to avoid the formation of a large quantity of gypsum in the pre-neutralization step before the uranium peroxide precipitation. (author)}
place = {IAEA}
year = {2014}
month = {May}
}