Recovery of uranium and other valuable metals from substrates and waste from copper and phosphate industries

ABSTRACT

Recovery of heavy metals and other useful materials from industrial waste is crucial because it reduces the environmental impact of the production facilities. The selective separation of uranium from such waste might be very important in the context of future energy production and the still essential role of nuclear power in the energy mix. The copper ores, waste from the copper industry, phosphate rocks and phosphogypsum were considered as sources of uranium in these studies. Apart from uranium, these materials also contain other valuable metals, e.g. rare earth elements. In the present work the procedures of extraction of uranium and accompanying metals designed for specific materials – the potential sources of metals, were reported.