IC 8796 Cost Of Producing U308 From Ammonium Bicarbonate In Situ Leach Solution By The Multiple-Compartment Ion-Exchange System

The Bureau of Mines estimated the cost for ,3 uranium ion-exchange recovery system using five grades of 17.0, leach solution producing 815,570 pounds of U 0? per year from an ammonium bicarbonate in situ leach solution. The system flowsheet consisted of four unit operations: (1) Multiple-compartment ion-exchange (MCIX) absorption; (2) MCIX elution; (3) precipitation of the uranium as yellow cake, filtering, calcining, and packaging; and (4) waste disposal. The total fixed capital cost of a system treating 2,000 gallons per minute of 0.1-gram-per-liter-U308 leach solution was estimated as $6,888,000. For n basic case of an MCIX system depreciating in 9 years, unit production cost of U308 was $3.51 per pound. A decrease in feed solution grade from 0.[4] to 0.03 gram per liter increased the production cost exponentially. Shorter depreciating periods significantly increased the production cost particularly for the lower grade feed solutions.