Information Circular 8796: Cost of Producing U3O8 from Ammonium Bicarbonate In Situ Leach Solution by the Multiple-Compartment Ion-Exchange System

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dolezal, Henry ; Hayashi, Masami
• Description:
  The Bureau of Mines estimated the cost for a uranium ion-exchange recovery system using five grades of U3O8 leach solution producing 815,570 pounds of U3O8 per year from an ammonium bicarbonate in situ leach solution. The system flowsheet consisted of four unit operations: (1) multiple-compartment ion-exchange (MCIX) absorption; (2) MCIX elution; (3) precipitation of the uranium as yellow cake, filtering, calcining, and packaging; and (4) waste disposal. The total fixed capital cost of a system treating 2,000 gallons per minute of 0.1-gram-per-liter-U3O8 leach solution was estimated as $6,888,000. For a basic case of an MCIX system depreciating in 9 years, unit production cost of U3O8 was $3.51 per pound. A decrease in feed solution grade from 0.4 to 0.03 gram per liter increased the production cost exponentially. Shorter depreciating periods significantly increased the production cost particularly for the lower grade feed solutions. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Chemistry Mining Occupational Health Safety Uranium
• Keywords:
  Ammonium Compounds Chemical Processing In Situ Mining Metallic Ions Metallic Salts Uranium Compounds Uranium Mining Uranium Ore
• Series:
  Mining Publications
• Subseries:
  Information Circular
• Publisher:
  U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  OSHA Region 8 ; Utah
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  SLRC - Salt Lake City Research Center
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  23 pdf pages
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:10008042
• NTIS Accession Number:
  PB-299604
• Citation:
  Salt Lake City, UT: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, IC 8796, 1979 Jan; :1-17
• CAS Registry Number:
  Ammonium bicarbonate (CAS RN 1066-33-7) ; Uranium (CAS RN 7440-61-1)
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  1979
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Source Full Name:
  Salt Lake City, UT: U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, IC 8796
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:11e764e4bf54714b3e71506f0448aaaf7dcc844dc18c8629e4a33a49f0c18b8df7aafae5b15609a7d62e7453af81a42d9fdfb367412db1d42cf73ac395f22fd6
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/206214/cdc_206214_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.16 MB ]