Underground uranium borehole leaching

Abstract

Kazakhstan has the world's largest raw material base of proven industrial uranium reserves. The bowels of the Republic of Kazakhstan contain about 25% of the world's proven uranium reserves. A unique feature of uranium reserves is that 75% of them are concentrated in deposits associated with regional zones of formation oxidation, which can be mined using a relatively cheap and environmentally preferred method of underground leaching. The presence in Kazakhstan of significant reserves of well-explored uranium deposits, developed mining and processing capacities of uranium, as well as the current situation on the world uranium market determine the prospects for the development of Kazakhstan's uranium mining industryю. Existing production technologies for the exploitation of hydrogenous uranium deposits do not meet the requirements of market economy: low labor productivity, high unit costs, require large capital investments, the technology is not competitive, and sulfuric acid is expensive. To create exemplary uranium mines, it is necessary and urgent to develop an innovative technology for the exploitation of hydrogenic uranium deposits. The main operational indicators determining the effectiveness of the application of SST include: leaching rate; average concentration of uranium in productive solutions; reagent consumption; productivity of productive solutions; the degree of extraction of uranium from the bowels; the volume of the solution spent on the extraction of uranium from a unit of ore mass (ratio W: T). The article presents the results of solving the main technical and technological problems, allowing to develop an innovative technology for the exploitation of hydrogenic uranium deposits: we have developed a method for using pumping wells without changing their design as injection wells; it is not intended to use an inline injection well location system, which makes it possible to drastically reduce capital expenditure; It is planned to use an ordinary pumping well without changing its design using the “x” method; this well can operate both a pumping well and a pumping well. The pumping well will operate under the name “Piston Well” in the mode of pulsating flows when a chemical solution is supplied to an array of uranium hydrogen deposits; the development of a method for intensifying the leaching of useful components, including uranium; a way to drastically reduce the consumption of a chemical reagent (H2SO4). With the existing technology for producing a productive uranium solution, the specific consumption of sulfuric acid per 1 ton of uranium concentrate is 1: 100, i.e. per 1 ton of extraction of uranium concentrate requires a consumption of sulfuric acid of 100 tons The work performed provides economic efficiency for the listed parameters of leaching of uranium.