Bulk sample testing for metallurgical characterisation of surficial uranium mineralisation at the Central Jordan Uranium Project

Abstract

Metallurgical characterisation of uranium mineralisation at the Central Jordan Uranium Project (CJUP) used 13 bulk samples chosen using a novel approach to confirm their representativeness. The bulk samples are considered to be representative of the entirety of the studied deposit if they provide good spatial coverage of the deposit, and their composition matches every fifth percentile or, at least, fifth, twenty-fifth, fiftieth, seventy-fifth and ninety-fifth percentiles, of the selective mining unit (SMU) compositions. The compositional representativeness of bulk samples is checked by plotting against histograms of SMU blocks, including comparisons of metal grades and metallurgically deleterious elements. This approach used bulk samples collected from the Khan Azabib and Siwaqa domains of the CJUP deposit. The test work results indicate that surficial uranium mineralisation within the CJUP deposit is amenable for leaching under alkaline conditions. Uranium can be recovered by heap leach technology, yielding a recovery of 80–90% during testing. One alternative approach is beneficiating the ore by wet scrubbing, another technology that may be a viable approach to exploiting the CJUP deposit and an area that certainly warrants further metallurgical studies.