![]() ![]() Any more than a few percent carbonate minerals means that alkali leach must be used in preference to the more efficient acid leach. One US ISL mine – Lance – is planning to use acid leach which has proved much more effective in tests. ISL mines in the USA use an alkali leach due to the presence of significant quantities of acid-consuming minerals such as gypsum and limestone in the host aquifers. ![]() Kazakh ISL mines generally do not employ an oxidant but use much higher acid concentrations in the circulating solutions. In Australian ISL mines (Beverley, Four MIle, and Honeymoon) the oxidant used is hydrogen peroxide and the complexing agent sulfuric acid. Once the pregnant solution is returned to the surface, the uranium is recovered in much the same way as in any other uranium plant (mill). It is then pumped through the underground orebody to recover the minerals in it by leaching. Uranium ISL uses the native groundwater in the orebody which is fortified with a complexing agent and in most cases an oxidant. However, the orebody needs to be permeable to the liquids used, and located so that they do not contaminate groundwater away from the orebody. ![]() Consequently there is little surface disturbance and no tailings or waste rock generated. In situ leaching (ISL), also known as solution mining, or in situ recovery (ISR) in North America, involves leaving the ore where it is in the ground, and recovering the minerals from it by dissolving them and pumping the pregnant solution to the surface where the minerals can be recovered. In USA, ISL is seen as the most cost effective and environmentally acceptable method of mining, and other experience supports this.Ĭonventional mining involves removing mineralised rock (ore) from the ground, breaking it up and treating it to remove the minerals being sought.ISL mining of uranium is undertaken in Australia, China, and Russia as well.Most uranium mining in the USA, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan is now by ISL, also known as in situ recovery (ISR). In 2019, 57% of world uranium mined was from by in situ leach (ISL) methods. ![]()
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