Successive recovery of vanadium and uranium from carnotite-bearing kaolinite sample, Southwestern Sinai, Egypt

In this work; the carnotite sample assaying 3.063%U and 2.142%V was subjected to a roasting step before successive vanadium and uranium leaching. The sample was roasted firstly with Na₂SO₄ followed by quenching the clinker with water for vanadium dissolution. Under the optimized roasting conditions the vanadium dissolution efficiency attained 89.5%. The obtained solution was then treated with NH₄Cl to precipitate the vanadium species as NH₄VO₃. Secondly, the remained residue was treated with carbonate-bicarbonate solution in presence of H₂O₂ to leach the uranium content. The resultant solution was subjected to uranium precipitation. The precipitate was gently washed with water and dried. (author)