Recovery of uranium and copper from mineralized dolostone, Gabal Allouga, Southwestern Sinai, Egypt

ABSTRACT To avert excessive sulfuric acid exhaustion in the classical leaching procedure and to avoid leaching of other undesirable impurities, proper alkaline leaching has been achieved for dolostone of Gabal Allouga, Southwestern Sinai, Egypt. The relevant factors for alkaline leaching of a technological sample assaying 1.2% Cu and 0.15% U were examined using a mixture of Na2CO3/ (NH4) HCO3 solution upon two samples namely; roasted sample at 540°C and raw materials un-roasted. The leaching kinetic results showed that the leaching procedure of uranium and copper from dolostone is controlled by shrinking core kinetic model 1–2/3(X)？(1？X)2/3 = kdt