ABSTRACT
An eco-friendly citric acid leaching of uranium (VI) from Abu Zeneima carbonaceous shale, as well as its extraction using humic acid, has been studied. Excess of chloride anions in the leachate solution became an offending object for uranium recovery due to its adverse effect on quaternary ammonium resins. To overcome this serious problem, humic acid extraction of uranium (VI) has been studied. The prepared citrate leach liquor was found to assay in g/L: 0.39 U, 4.4 Cl, 1.4 Fe and 0.12 REE. The obtained results indicated that 97.3% of U (VI) was efficiently extracted compared to other associated elements (i.e. Cl, Fe and REE) at pH 5 with stirring time of 45 min.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their appreciation to Prof. T. E. Amer (NMA) for the critical reading of the manuscript.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Compliance with ethical standards
The present paper is an original work.