Alkaline Leaching of Uranium From High Carbonate Rock Material With Stress on Kinetic Studies, Southwestern Sinai, Egypt

The present work aims to study leaching of uranium from a high – carbonate ore material of Um Bogma Formation in G. Allouga at southwestern Sinai using a mixture of sodium carbonate/sodium bicarbonate solution. Under the optimum conditions, it was possible to realize a dissolution efficiency of about ≈ 90 % for U using 250 μm particle size, 1M Na₂ CO₃ /0.1 M NaHCO₃ solution, 1:10 solid liquid ratio at 30 °C. The mechanism of uranium leaching process was determined using the shrinking core kinetic model. The latter proved that the used leaching system follow the product layer diffusion process. A rate equation was formulated using the activation energy and reaction orders of important process parameters.