Studies on conversion of crude sodium diuranate to high purity uranium oxide by chemical route

Uranium values are recovered from ores and mine rejects by employing chemical processing methods. The process chemistry could be either acidic (H₂SO₄ medium) or alkaline (Na₂CO₃ - NaHCO₃ medium) based depending on the nature of host rock. The end product is termed as 'yellow cake' which is sent to refining plants for final purification and fuel manufacture. Conventionally the yellow cake product is magnesium (MDU) or ammonium diuranate (ADU) in U-plants following the acidic processing route while it is sodium diuranate (SDU) in the alkaline route. The preference for SDU in plants operating with alkaline route is mainly driven by the requirement of conserving and reusing the expensive chemicals. Though alkaline processing gives relatively purer diuranate product, the practice of direct precipitation of dissolved uranium from pregnant leach liquors invariably leads to presence of impurities detrimental for downstream unit operations, mostly in solvent extraction based refining stages. In this score uranium peroxide is superior to other uranates in many respects. Two alternatives are practiced for the conversion of SDU to uranium peroxide - chemical and fluid bed precipitation. Though generic flowsheet for the conversion stage is well documented, the process conditions and complexities vary with the chemistry of the pregnant leach liquor which is specific for a given ore or a deposit. This paper discusses the process scheme tailored, optimized and tested on a kilo-gram scale for chemical conversion of SDU produced by alkaline processing of a low-grade carbonate hosted uranium ore. The entire process scheme is first of its kind in Indian uranium ore processing arena