Extraction chromatography and fractional precipitation procedures for production various zirconium grades for industrial and nuclear interest from Egyptian zircon ore

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Nuclear materials authority

2 EAEA, Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority

3 Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority

4 Atomic Energy Authority, Hot Labs. Centre

Abstract

The present study describes enrichment and purification of zirconium the Egyptian zircon ore, by selective successive precipitations and two analytical tools. The obtained main results indicated that three grades of Zr-concentrates were produced (PPt-A, PPt-B and PPt-C) by selective precipitation. In PPt-B grade, Zr exists with actinides (U and Th), so, purified by anion exchange chromatography and fractional precipitation. However, the purity of Zr obtained by the both methods reached 99%. Meanwhile, recoveries were varied between 64% of fraction precipitation and 95% by extraction chromatography. As a result, the Zr/Hf ratio in zircon ore was 40.3 in zircon ore, then, increased to 463 (11.5-folds) in PPt-B concentrate obtained by selective precipitation at pH 5, and increased again to 116-folds by extraction chromatography. Due to the some industrial and the nuclear significance of Zr, the zircon exists around the long Egyptian beaches can be explored to produce high grades of Zr-concentrates.

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