Abstracto

Potentiality of sodiummetabisulphite for the selective iron removal prior to uraniumelution fromits loaded anion exchange resin

Mohamed S.Nagar

Most uranium was include ferric iron to varying degrees in a manner that recovery of the former from its sulphate leach liquors by anion exchange resin would be contaminated with some anionic ferric complexes. In order to avoid iron removal from uranium eluate the effective reductant sodium metsbisulphite (SMBS) has been applied to remove the co-adsorbed (captured) iron prior to uranium elution. Both batch equilibrium testing using synthetic solutions and column studies upon Gattar leach liquor has been achieved using the Chinese anion exchange resin (B263D). It was found the iron contaminating the resin is not adsorbed but is mainly occupying the resin pores. By using (SMBS), it was possible in the synthetic solution batch studies to selectively remove 99% of the iron from the resin while the co-eluted uranium did not exceed 0.5%.