The process of extracting uranium from ore often involves leaching the ore with sulfuric acid to produce an acid leach solution. Often, the acid leach solution is then passed through an ion exchange resin (for example a strong base anion exchange resin). The uranium is thought to become loaded onto the resin in the form of the [UO2(SO4)3]4−complex anion. Often the uranium is removed from the resin by eluting with sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid eluate produced in this elution is an acidic aqueous solution that contains sulfuric acid, uranium, and impurities. A common impurity is iron. The uranium in this eluate is thought to be, at least partially, in the form of UO22+.

Once this sulfuric acid eluate is produced, the problem remains of how to recover the uranium from the sulfuric acid eluate and convert the uranium into a useful form such as, for example, sodium diuranate (SDU) or ammonium diuranate (ADU). One useful method of recovering uranium involves bringing the sulfuric acid eluate into contact with a cation exchange resin to adsorb uranium on the resin, followed by removing the uranium from the resin by bringing the uranium-loaded resin into contact with an appropriate elution fluid, such as, for example, an aqueous solution of HCl or an aqueous solution of sodium sulfate. It is contemplated that uranium is adsorbed on the resin as part of a cationic species such as, for example, UO22+. One difficulty with such methods is that iron, a common contaminant in uranium, is adsorbed onto the resin and then eluted along with the uranium. It is desired to provide a process for recovering uranium that also separates the iron from the uranium.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,138 describes a process for recovering plutonium that includes loading plutonium onto a strong acid cation exchange resin and then removing the plutonium from the resin by elution with an aqueous solution of HI. It is desired to provide a process that is effective at recovering uranium while also separating iron from the uranium.

The following is a statement of the invention.

A first aspect of the present invention is a process for recovering uranium comprising(A) bringing a solution (A) into contact with a resin (A) to produce a mixture of solution (B) and resin (B), wherein the solution (A) is an aqueous solution comprising dissolved sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate, or a mixture thereof, and wherein the resin (A) is a strong acid cation exchange resin that comprises one or more cationic moiety that comprises uranium and one or more cationic moiety that comprises iron, and(B) separating the solution (B) from the resin (B).

