Abstract
The present study deals with the purification of crude yellow cake produced through sulfate leaching of Gattar mineralization, Eastern Desert- Egypt. The Gattar yellow cake is purified through dissolving it in hydrochloric acid which dissolves about 95% of uranium content in the studied cake. Uranium extraction was obtained from the prepared pregnant solution using a synergistic organic solvent mixture of 0.5M di ethyl hexyl phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) and 0.63M octanol in kerosene diluent. Different factors have been studied such as solvent concentration, stirring time, organic to aqueous phase ratio and temperature. The obtained loaded organic solvent was exposed to different concentrations of sodium carbonate to strip the uranium. After the stripping process, the uranium was precipitated using ammonia solution at pH 6.2. The product precipitate washed and dried then analysed. The analysis of the final precipitate shows upgrading of uranium concentration in the original cake from 46% to 76% while that of Fe has been decreased from 1.6% down to only 0.06% while that of Al and V have been totally removed .