COMPARISON OF PROCESS MINERALOGY OF GANGUE MINERALS BE-FORE AND AFTER IN-SITU LEACHING OF MENGQIGUER URANIUM DE-POSIT IN XINJIANG BASED ON TIMA ANALYSIS
The Mengqiguer uranium deposit,located in the southern part of the Yili Basin,is character-ized as a sandstone-type uranium deposit with a high carbonate content in the leachable oxidation zone.This paper employs the TESCAN Integrated Mineral Analysis(TIMA)to scrutinize changes in gangue mineral association,dissociation degree,and particle size before and after CO2+O2 in-situ leaching.This analysis unveils the impact of gangue minerals on uranium leaching during the neutral in-situ leaching process,offering significant insights for the mineralogical research of uranium leaching.Prior to leaching,the association degrees between coffinite and pitchblende,pyrite,orthoclase,and quartz are measured at 19.31％,18.82％,14.86％,and 12.19％,respectively.In contrast,the association degree between pitchblende and coffinite is notably higher at 89.16％.Post-leaching,the association degree between cof-finite and orthoclase increases to 31.47％and 45.09％,respectively,while the association degree of quartz becomes 10.08％and 17.60％.In contrast,the association degree of pitchblende decreases to 1.69％and 0.00％,and pyrite is completely reduced to 0.00％.The proportion of coffinite associated with pitch-blende after leaching significantly decreases to 53.85％and 0.00％,respectively.Examining the dissocia-tion degree,it is observed that the proportion of mineral particles with less than 10％dissociation degree of pyrite,quartz,coffinite,and pitchblende increases both before and after leaching,indicating a reduction in the dissociation degree,except for orthoclase.Regarding particle size,after leaching,the proportion of orthoclase,pyrite,coffinite,and pitchblende particles smaller than 50μm increases,suggesting a decrea-sing trend in particle size.In contrast,the change in quartz particle size is not significant.In summary,the dissolution of pyrite and orthoclase during the neutral leaching process impedes the migration and leac-hing of uranium.Quartz has no significant effect on uranium leaching.Additionally,the recognition that organic matter and clay minerals wrapping around pitchblende and coffinite diminishes leaching efficiency,making the extraction of uranium minerals challenging.These findings provide valuable insights into opti-mizing the neutral leaching process for enhanced uranium recovery.
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