HEAP LEACHING

TREATMENT OF CLAYEY ORE

AT SOMAIR

N. DURUPT
JJ. BLANVILLAIN
J. JOURDE
photo
M. SANOUSSI

AREVA Mines
Service Etudes Procds et Analyses

HEAP LEACH 2013

Vancouver
September 22-25, 2013
 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar

Somar
More than 40 kt of uranium produced from 1968
Production in 2012 : 3000 t of U (2/3 by pugging curing process + 1/3 by heap leaching process)

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Pugging curing process (dynamic process) :

Ore crushing and grinding

Leaching with sulfuric acid with the pugging curing method

Filtering ore on a belt filter

Extraction of the uranium by solvent

Precipitation of the uranium with soda in a fluidized bed

1000 to 2000 tU produced each year by pugging curing

 main part of uranium produced at Somar

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Heap leaching process (static process) :

1971 1988 : Production of uranium by dump leaching

Dump leaching of the marginal run of mine ores with strong acid irrigation

5 900 tU produced by dump leaching during that period

Low recovery : less than 50%

1988 2009 : More than 10 millions tons of marginal ores stored on the site

Technological progresses in the heap leaching of copper or gold

Up to 2009 : New plant of heap leaching

500 to 1000 tU produced each year

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Heap leaching process (static process) :

Ore crushing in 3 stages to a particle size of -10mm or -17mm

Agglomeration by adding water and concentrated sulfuric acid

Stacking onto a heap pad (400m x 40m x 6m)

Irrigation with diluted sulfuric acid (10 g/l)

Extraction of the uranium by solvent

Precipitation of the uranium with soda in a fluidized bed

500 to 1000 tU produced each year by heap leaching

 Near a third of uranium produced at Somar

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar

Distribution of ores between static and dynamic process :

Low U grade
M1

Control of the trucks

by radiometry and
classification of the
M2
M3
M4
}  Static process

Run of mine
ores M5
M6
}  Dynamic process

High U grade

 More than 10 millions tons of marginal ores (M1 + M2 + M3 + M4) stored on the site since 1988

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Heap leaching since 2009 :
Good recovery of uranium and no problem of permeability during the 6 first months
with a sandstone ore

The difficulties appeared with a new deposit that was much more clayey
- Solutions pools appeared on the surface of the heaps
- Some of the heap edges collapsed

 Better understanding the phenomena by characterization of the clay minerals

 Finding processing routes to treat the clayey ores

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Formula used by Somar for 40 years :

[clay] (%) = 3.215 [Al2O3] (%) 1.585 [SiO2] (%) + 134.72

- Sufficient for a very general estimation

- Practice and fast for analysis on-site by atomic absorption
 Good for dynamic treatment

But :

- Do not allow to differentiate clays (swelling or no swelling)

- Established for one deposit and very approximate for others deposits
 Too approximate for static treament

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :
100 4000

75 Clay grade 3000

Uranium grade
Claygrade(%)

Ugrade(g/t)
50 2000

25 1000

0 0
> 10mm > 5mm > 2mm > 800m > 400m > 160m > 50m < 50m

Particle size

Uranium and clay are found essentially in the fine particles (<50m)
- Below 50m, clay mainly
- Between 50m and 2mm, sandstone mainly
- Beyond 2mm, clay and uranium content close to the average ore grades

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Objective : to relate clay contents to the results of treatment (column tests,

measures of permeability, industrial performances)

1 collection of samples on site from various deposits (more than 100 samples)
2 XRD analysis of each sample to identify the main clay minerals present
3 XRF analysis of each sample to try to quantify the major elements

 Semi-quantitative determination of all clays

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Main clay : KAOLINITE

Clay type 1/1 :

-An octohedral layer (Al)
-A tetrahedral layer (Si)

Space between sheets closed with hydrogen bonds  no swelling

Hydraulic conductivity : 10-8 m/s (for density = 1,6)

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Second clay : ILLITE

Clay type 2/1 :

-An octohedral layer
-Two tetrahedral layers

Space between sheets occupied by K+ ions  no swelling

Hydraulic conductivity : 10-11 m/s (for density = 1,6)

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Other clay : ILLITE /SMECTITE INTERSTRATIFIED

Clay type 2/1 :

-An octohedral layer
-Two tetrahedral layers

Space between sheets occupied by water and exchangeable ions  strong risk of swelling
Hydraulic conductivity : << 10-11 m/s (for density = 1,6)

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Examples of composition of 3 deposits (%) :

Dumps SiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 MnO MgO CaO Na2O K2O TiO2

F 87.0 5.5 1.60 0.01 0,20 0.21 0.51 1.20 0.42

G 91,2 4.4 1.27 0.01 0.11 0.35 0.98 1.09 0.19

H 91,4 5.1 1.19 0.01 0.07 0.31 0.42 1.15 0.25

Dumps Mica + Illite Illite/Smectite Kaolinite Chlorite Quartz Calcite Feldspath K Pyrite Iron oxide Gypse
Interstratified
F >0 - 2 4 10 49 01 75 79 01 27 13 01 01

G 15 02 48 01 82 85 01 37 01 02 02

H >0 - 2 02 6 11 01 81 84 01 58 01 02 01

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Characterization of clays :

Conclusions :

- Relation between clays and fine particles

- Semi-quantitative determination of clays
- Presence of a swelling clay, which can cause problem of permeability

Future work :

- To relate these characterizations to the results of treatment

- To determine the limit contents for the swelling clay
- To work out a method of analysis on-site

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling of the dumps :

Objectives :

- To sample each historic dumps (before 2009) or dumps in the process of formation (after 2009)
- To obtain a representative sample of the dump
- To determine the grades of uranium and clays
- To obtain representative sample for column tests

Difficulties :

- To sample correctly heaps of 100 kt to 1 000 kt

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling of the dumps :

Sampling by Primary Secondary and

picking crusher tertiary crusher
( 10 t/h)

more than 20 dumps 400 t / dump 200 t / dump 200 t / dump

100 kt to 1 Mt / dump Particle size : < 300mm Particle size : < 10 or 20 mm
20 drums / dump

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling of the dumps :

Results :

Characterization of more than 20 dumps

 Identification of dumps with clay risks
 Classification of dumps according to the Uranium grade
 Support to the production to plan blending of dumps

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Influence of the clay grade :

Influence revealing by columns tests

The limit of clay contents fixed to 12%

(calculated with empirical equation : [clay] (%) = 3.215 [Al2O3] (%) 1.585 [SiO2] (%) + 134.72)

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Influence of the clay grade :

Sandstone dump Clayey dump

Influence confirmed by the plant

The limit of clay contents fixed to 12%

(calculated with empirical equation : [clay] (%) = 3.215 [Al2O3] (%) 1.585 [SiO2] (%) + 134.72)

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Influence of the clay grade :

First solutions considered to treat clayey ores :

Reduction of the irrigation flowrate

Increase of the particle size

Blending of the ores to stay below 12% of clays

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Influence of the clay grade :

Reduction of the irrigation flowrate (6 to 3 L/h/m2) :

 Required to keep the same ratio of irrigation (L/S) to

maintain the uranium recovery

 Increase of the leaching time

 Increase of the irrigated area

Results :
Positive solution, but insufficient

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Influence of the clay grade :

Increase of the particle size (10mm to 17mm) :

 Significant gains of permeability

 Decrease of the uranium recovery
- 0,9% if the particle size increases from 10 to 20mm
- 2 to 4% if the particle size increases from 10 to 40mm

Results :
Positive solution, but insufficient

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Influence of the clay grade :

Blending of the ores to stay below 12% clays :

 Planning of blending according to the characterization of the dumps

(clay and uranium grades)
 Easy to set up (1 truck on 2 or more)
 No investment

Results :

Best solution : cheap and good results for Somar, but :

The deposit should not be too heterogeneous
 Enough sandstone ores is needed to dilute clayey ores

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
Influence of the clay grade : at Somar
Other options when all the sandstone deposits are exhausted :

 Addition of a binder
 stronger agglomerates and better permeability
 several binders found, but high costs

 Reduction of heap heights

 increasing the surface of the leach areas and operating costs

 Elimination of fines after crushing

 leaching of fines by the acid pugging/curing process or by a
Resin In Pulp process
 how to separate fines ?

All these options are currently being studied

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013
 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling by coring after leaching :

Core diameter : 50mm

Core length : 1,5m
20 to 30 core / cell
4 cores by core drilling

Sampling plan of a cell

Sampling plan of a sub-cell

AB AC AD AE AF AG AH AI AJ

S T U V W X Y Z AA

J K L M N O P Q R

A B C D E F G H I

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling by coring after leaching :

Cores

Drying Moisture

Division

Samples corresponding Samples corresponding

to the same coring to the same height

Washing
U recovery U recovery
by coring by height

Washing and
leaching yields
HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013
 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling by coring after leaching :

350

300

250
U grade (g/t)

200

150

100

50

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Clay grade (%)

 Irrigation ratio (L/S) lower with clays because of poor permeability

 Acid consumption higher with clays
 U recovery decreases when clay grade increases

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
Sampling by coring after leaching :
200

160
U grade (g/t)

120

80 Cell D7 : non-washed residues

Cell D7 : washed residues
Cell A13 : non-washed residues
40
Cell A13 : washed residues

0
Level 1 Level 2 Level 3

 Difference between washed and non-washed residues is higher with clayey ores
 the washing is less good
 Difference between washed and non-washed residues is lower with the depth
 the circulation of solutions through the heap improves with depth
HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013
 Heap Leaching
Treatment of Clayey Ore
at Somar
General conclusion :

 The link between the problems of permeability and the clays was demonstrated
 Consequences :
 Pools on the surface of heaps
 Few collapses of the heap edges
 Delays in the uranium production
 Drop in the uranium recovery
 Solutions :
 Reduction of the irrigation flowrate
 Increase of the particle size
 Blending of the ores to stay below 12% of clays

 New processing routes are at present studied when all of the sandstone deposits
are exhausted

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Thanks to my collegues :

Jean-Jacques Blanvillain, for all the work carries out during this study

Jean Jourde, for the trust that he granted to us

Mohamed Sanoussi, for the on-site analytical support

Jrmy Neto and Neilesh Syna, for their contribution

ERM Poitiers, for the characterization of clays

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013

 Thank you for your attention

Questions ?

HEAP LEACH 2013 Vancouver September 22-25, 2013