Extraction of Molybdenum and Uranium from Low-Grade Molybdenum Bearing Ore Containing Uranium through Mechanical Activation Following Acid Leaching

ABSTRACT

Extraction of molybdenum (Mo) from jordisite is difficult due to the amorphous state of MoS₂. In this study, mechanical activation was employed to pretreat this type of ore with a low Mo content of 0.26%, and then molybdenum and uranium were both extracted from the milled ore using sulfuric acid. The effects of milling time, oxidant, and optimal leaching conditions were investigated in the laboratory. The results show that the mechanical activation will reduce the particle size and increase the specific surface area of the ore under certain milling conditions. Mechanical activation without oxidants in a hypoxia environment is not conductive to the recovery of molybdenum. When the oxidant of MnO₂ is added during the milling process, the Mo recovery will increase greatly. The effect of mechanical activation on U recovery is not so obvious. The phenomenon of agglomerate will occur during the milling process, which will reduce Mo recovery seriously, especially when the milling time is more than 120 min. The Mo and U recovery can reach 84.52% and 61.39%, respectively, after optimization of sulfuric acid leaching process conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Molybdenum
• uranium
• mechanical activation
• acid leaching
• agglomerate

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the research funding from China National Nuclear Corporation (No. A101-6), and also the support from the National Key Research and Development Program (No. 2019YFC1904204).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.