Review and prospect of China's uranium mining development in the past 10 years

In the mid-to-late 1980s, the world uranium mining industry went downhill, and the lowest market price of U ₃ O _{8 in the} international market was only 7.4 US dollars. Affected by this, China's uranium mining industry has gone down all the way, and has experienced a long road of "protecting the army to the people" and "closing bankruptcy." In the 1990s, companies tried many reforms, explored many mining models, and developed some new technologies and processes. At the turn of the new and old century, the new reform plan has matured and the new technology has been practiced and developed. At the beginning of the 21st century, the uranium mining industry finally showed its vitality. In the first 10 years, the new process technology has matured, and the scale benefits have gradually formed. From the narrow circle that has been seeking survival, there has been a momentum of active development.

I. New system and new mechanism will make mining enterprises get out of trouble

Since the construction of mines in China in the 1950s, China's uranium mines have been used to build water and metallurgical plants in certain mine areas. The mines or waterworks are a “large” small society with public institutions and facilities. Enterprises under this operating mechanism are inefficient, costly, and slow to develop.

Beginning in the 1990s, people have been exploring how to change this model. In the past 10 years, the old model has been structurally destroyed and replaced by a new model.

Uranium mining companies have separated the public institutions and facilities they originally owned from the enterprises through bankruptcy and reorganization. The bankruptcy and restructuring of the enterprise will enable the original mine to survive and develop. The labor productivity and economic benefits of the restructured enterprises have all been improved.

The employment system of the restructured enterprise has been fundamentally changed, and the enterprise has the autonomy of employment. Many enterprises use the contracting method to carry out special underground construction by the contracting team, speed up the construction speed, improve the construction quality, ensure safety and save construction costs. This model has been recognized and promoted by almost all uranium mines.

Since the personnel-intensive jobs of mining enterprises adopt foreign contracting methods, enterprises mainly employ jobs with high technical requirements, so the number of fixed workers in mines is greatly reduced. Once an enterprise with an annual output of 120,000 tons of ore, it needs to have a labor quota of 600 to 1200 people, and now only needs 300 to 400 people.

With the promotion and application of this employment system, even some posts with relatively high technical requirements or positions requiring skilled workers have adopted an employment system.

The uranium mining and metallurgy system was engaged in 45,000 uranium production workers in 1984. In 1998, it was reduced to 8,500. The labor productivity of uranium mines was four times higher than that in the 1980s. In the past 10 years, the number of personnel has decreased again and the efficiency has increased again.

Enterprises no longer run a society, with the goal of "skilled team, new technology, and good efficiency", these can not be said to be a bright spot in the past 10 years.

Second, new technology makes uranium mining enterprises out of the trough

In view of the characteristics of uranium deposits in China, the scientific and technical personnel of the uranium mining and metallurgical front have developed a variety of new mining technologies, as well as new uranium extraction processes such as heap leaching and in-situ leaching. These new technologies and new technologies have played an important role in uranium mining enterprises in China to get rid of difficulties and achieve sustainable development.

(1) Improved dry filling mining method

Dry filling mining is an ancient mining method. Although this mining method has low production efficiency and high labor intensity, due to its flexibility, simplicity and practicality, this mining method is widely used in uranium mines in China according to the characteristics of uranium deposits in China. It is estimated that 60% of the ore production in China's uranium mines comes from dry filling mining, and 70% of the mining methods are dry filling.

In the past 10 years, some thin ore vein uranium mines in China have been improved by the method of filling and filling mining, also called “cutting wall filling method”, which has achieved good results. This kind of improvement is mainly for the thin veins of less than 3m. According to the principle that the volume of the ore changes according to the original density of the ore, the method is used to fill the gobs by horizontally cutting or cutting the wall rocks at the same level or in the mining area to ensure that the goaf is filled. The goaf and the wall-cutting space can be calculated by the full filling of the wall-cut rock. This method does not require the use of mountain rock, eliminating the filling system and ground filling station on the ground, thus protecting the original ecology of the ground from damage and protecting the ground and ecological environment.

A uranium mine in northern Guangdong has been exploited for more than ten years by this mining method. No proprietary dry filling system has been established, saving construction costs, successfully completing the national uranium mining plan, and opening up for thin vein filling. A new technical route. This dry filling mining method is currently also used in the mining of uranium deposits in Jiangxi and other places. However, this method is not suitable for mining in ore bodies with a thickness greater than 3 m, because it is difficult to achieve the balance between wall cutting and filling.

(2) No bottom structure retention mining method

The mining and mining method is a good mining method for orebody mining with stable surrounding rock and poor stability of ore body. In the 20th century, a uranium deposit in the north was used, and its main feature was that a bottom structure had to be established. The success of the ore retention method depends on the integrity of the bottom structure. When a stope ore is not harvested, the funnel neck wear will bring troubles for subsequent ore mining. In essence, the method of repairing the funnel is a last resort. . Therefore, the improvement of the bottom funnel structure is a subject that the mining and mining method has been exploring. In the past 10 years, China's uranium mine technicians have explored a “bottom-free structure mining and mining method” suitable for uranium deposit mining, which has been successfully applied in a uranium mine in Gansu and has evolved into a highly efficient mining method. Mining missions can be completed in just one production stop.

The non-bottom structure mining method is a combination of the retention method and the open field mining method. In the stope, the empty field is used for mining, and the personnel work on the ore pile, and the vertical ore discharge from the bottom funnel is changed to the ore discharge and ore discharge from the side discharge chamber. The discharge chamber is similar to the sub-column-free sublevel caving method. The discharge chamber. The small scraper is used for mining, and when the ore discharge amount can meet the formation space of the upper ore pile, the mining is stopped, and then the rock drilling and blasting operation of the next cycle is started.

The biggest improvement of the bottomless mining method is to eliminate the bottom structure and ensure the safety of the stope structure of the intermittent ore. Except for the ore body mining which is more suitable for steeply inclined thin veins, the other advantages are not changed much with the bottomed mining and mining method.

(3) Application of small trackless equipment

There are always different views in China on whether or not small mines can be applied to trackless equipment. Many people believe that it is difficult for small mines to fully utilize the capabilities of trackless equipment and have poor economics.

A mine is a high-grade deposit with mineral bed faults, tensile fissures and internal breccia. The ore-bearing surrounding rocks are mainly mixed quartzite , white mixed granite and mixed mica quartz schist. The mixed quartzite rock is hard, the top and bottom plates are intact, f=24, and the density is 2.3t/m ³ ; the white mixed granite rock is hard, the top and bottom plates are intact, f=16, and the density is 2.73t/m ³ ; mixed mica quartz The schist f = 9 to 10 and the density is 3.04 t/m ³ .

In order to open the ore with higher efficiency, the mine introduced the trackless mining technology and established a test team. In the mine 244m, 248m, 252m, 256m stratification, 260m layered bottom cutting, 263, 267m layered stope, the ST-1.5 small trackless equipment diesel scraper mining test work, lasted 344d. The scraper has a capacity of 1.2m ³ and a power of 41kW. In the case of an average test area of ​​only 236m2, the mining area is 20,000 tons, the number of attendance classes is 326 classes, the working hours are 1055.5h, the average working hours are 3.24h, and the efficiency of the class is 61.4t. 19t, direct work efficiency is 9.2t. Matching this scraper is the H104 small single-arm full hydraulic trackless rock drilling rig, which has an average working time of 1.69h and a working efficiency of 65.8m. The trial mining proves that mining with trackless equipment is safer than the previous dry filling mining method, and the labor intensity of the workers is small and the mining efficiency is high. Since then, it has set a precedent for the successful application of mechanized mining of trackless equipment in small domestic mines.

(4) Stratified caving method

The 3 ^# ore body of a uranium mine in the north is located in the F3~F4 fault zone of the northern wing of the deposit, and it is NE-NW. The length is about 90m, the inclination is NW, and the inclination angle is 60°. The shape and shape of the ore body are controlled by the NE structure. The boundary between the ore body and the surrounding rock is not obvious. The upper plate is a pomegranate mica schist, which is brittle and has poor cementation and is easy to fall. The lower plate is a mixed quartzite. The ore body is affected by multi-stage tectonic action, the ore is broken, the joint fissure is developed, and the roof is easy to fall. Orebody top slate rock and ore in an inverted wedge, mixed quartz granite contact zone often easy to cave, stope and have been the main haulage tunnel collapse accident larger area, even to the point of frequent roof collapse can not be mined. Although it is labor intensive to divide into caving, the work schedule is inefficient, but the safety is good. Therefore, the mine has adopted this traditional “outdated” mining method in accordance with expert advice.

The stratified caving method is suitable for the ore body where the surrounding rock of the ore body is broken. The artificially erected flexible bracket is used to cover the mining chamber. Personnel equipment in the diverticulum to achieve mining rock drilling, blasting, mining, ore operations. Immediately after the completion of the last layer of mining, a new artificial flexible layer is laid. After the dummy layer is laid, the topping operation is carried out, so that the floating rock body falls off onto the new artificial flexible layer, and then the mining operation cycle under the new artificial layer is carried out.

The stratified caving method of the uranium mine design index: the test mining block length is 14 ~ 44m, the vertical height is 18m, the stratification height is 2.3m, and the mining inlet width is 2.4m. The sampling rate is 7.1m/kt. The top distance of the stope is 2~2.2m, the top distance is 2~2.2m, and the suspended roof distance is 6~6.6m. The main equipment of the stope is 3 sets of 7555 rock drills, 2 sets of JFH0.5/48 wind winches, 2 self-made hand-held buckets and 1 set of G10 winds. The production capacity of the stope is 1296t/month, the ergonomics is 12.54t/(work·class), the mining intensity is 4.83t/(m ² ·month), the ore depletion rate is 10.02%, and the ore loss rate is 4.5%.

At present, another uranium mine intends to apply this mining method to mine 333 ore bodies that have not been mined for more than 40 years due to the crushing of ore bodies. The main technical and economic indicators are as follows: the mining loss rate is 5%, the ore depletion rate is 7%, the mining efficiency is 3.18t/(work·class), the daily production capacity of the stope is 27t, and the monthly production capacity of the stope is 700t.

(5) Comprehensive Mining Law

With the continuous development of uranium mining activities, shallow surface easy-to-mine bodies are becoming less and less, and more and more are encountered in shallow-surface, difficult-to-collect, gently-sloping thin ore bodies. The comprehensive mining method is a method suitable for mining ore bodies with moderately inclined (ore body inclination angle less than 30°) thin (ore body thickness less than 3 m) ore body and medium stable ore. As the ore body is thinner, it will inevitably touch more surrounding rocks, which will lead to the depletion of ore. In order to expand the working surface and create a larger space for the work of mining workers, the comprehensive mining law was developed.

The comprehensive mining method generally arranges the stope according to the direction of the ore body. The length of the stope is 30-50 m and the width is about 30 m. The height is usually the same as the thickness of the ore body. The stope can be made of wooden pillars with a spacing of 2 to 4 m. The mining working face is opened along the bottom plate of the ore body, and the working surface is advanced in the direction of the step, forming a full-section working face, which can be mined along the ore body along the floor of the ore body. The loss depletion rate of this method is generally 5% to 10%. Drilling ergonomics can reach 40 ~ 60t / (work · class), is a safer method to solve the mining of gently inclined thin ore body. At present, many new mines are designed to adopt this method.

(6) heap leaching method

The leaching of uranium by heap leaching is a low-cost uranium leaching technology that emerged in China in the 1990s. This method has a short construction period, low investment, low operating cost and easy operation, and is suitable for uranium mines of various sizes. The ore uranium leaching rate of this method can usually reach 80% to 90%. In addition to in situ leaching of mines in China, almost all mines use this technology. In the era of low uranium market prices in the world, China's uranium heap leaching technology has played a huge role in reducing the cost of uranium ore processing, and is one of the main technical measures to make uranium mining enterprises out of the predicament.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the price of the world uranium market has risen, and Chinese uranium mining companies are also considering how to make the recovery rate of uranium leaching higher, thus achieving better economic results. Some mines have improved the ore heap leaching process, and the ore is finely ground. The ore agitation leaching solid-liquid separation-clear liquid ion exchange adsorption process is adopted, and a higher uranium recovery rate than the heap leaching method is obtained. As this agitation leaching process recovers more uranium, the tailings slag has a lower grade and better economic effect. Many mines follow suit, and this method is used to replace the heap leaching.

(7) Ground immersion method

The conditions for in-situ leaching and mining are relatively strict. The ore is required to be in the ore-bearing aquifer. The upper and lower plates of the ore body are separated by water, and the ore body has good permeability. The most favorable permeability coefficient of in-situ leaching is 1~10m/d. Between), the ore is in pressurized water and is an easy-dip ore. Since the success of a mine test in 1984, the in-situ leaching uranium mining technology has been used in industrial production in Xinjiang, China. The uranium mining in Xinjiang has summarized many valuable experiences, and hundreds of tons of uranium are recovered annually. Xinjiang has always been the leader in the leaching of in-situ leachable sandstone ore.

The uranium mine in Xinjiang has natural suitable conditions, and most of the ore is easily leached ore.

Xinjiang uranium mine infiltration has achieved many technical developments, mainly including leachate migration range control technology, wing ore body leaching technology, deep water submersible pumping technology, complete modular filter tube installation technology and groundwater after endurance Governance techniques, etc.

1. Control technology for the migration range of the leach solution. The technology is a key technology in-situ leaching, can ensure leaching agent in a controlled state in the seam, you can safely extract a useful metal in the ore body, ore body is not unfettered flow to the outside or on a large scale Non-mineral rock layer migration. In in-situ leaching production, the loss of control of the leaching solution will increase the cost of leaching and damage the underground environment, and also bring difficulties and high costs to the “mining area” groundwater treatment.

2. Wing ore body leaching technology. The wing ore body is the most difficult to be immersed in the sandstone uranium deposit. The complete leaching of the wing ore is a complete indicator of the leaching of the entire ore body. The mining test and production application of the Xinjiang leaching ore body wing is the first in the country, and its level represents the level of China's in-situ mining. The recovery rate of uranium from in-situ mining in Xinjiang has reached more than 75%, reflecting the complete completion of wing mining.

3. Deep water level submersible pump pumping technology. The air leaching of the immersion liquid generally has the advantages of simple operation and low capital investment, but the air pumping flow is low, the lifting depth is small, and the lifting efficiency is low. Therefore, at the time of the exchange of the old and new century, the Xinjiang immersion mine gradually changed its air to a submersible pump and gained experience. Especially the in-situ leaching project has a pumping depth of more than 70-100m, which shows the superiority of the submersible pump.

4. Complete modular filter tube installation technology. In-situ leaching and extraction of liquid and injection wells is the passage of the leaching solution into and out of the ore layer. The leaching of the leaching solution causes a flushing effect on the well wall and destroys the stability of the well wall, in order to ensure the smooth entry and exit of only the leaching solution. Without entraining the sand slag and protecting the well wall, it is necessary to install a filter tube in the mine section. The installation of the filter tube is also a guarantee for the safety of well washing when the well is completed. Lowering and installing the filter tube is a technically demanding process in the completion operation. If the installation is not good, the drill hole will be scrapped, the pumping liquid will be poor, the expected leaching effect will not be achieved, and even the leaching solution will be Migration in a non-mineral layer, leaching non-useful gangue minerals in the formation, not the target metal. This not only wastes the leaching reagent, but also hinders the leaching of useful minerals. Modularization of the filter tube is an inevitable result of the development of the in-situ leaching and completion operation technology, which can ensure the reliability of the installation of the filter tube. Modularization of the filter tube for in-situ drilling is a process that has been realized in Xinjiang in the past 10 years.

5, CO + O _{2 in} situ leaching of uranium mining technology to obtain practical applications. Many uranium deposits suitable for in-situ leaching are classified as interlayer oxidation zones. These marine or paleo-bed rich deposits are complex, such as Ca ²⁺ , Mg ²⁺ , Cl ^{- The} content is high, resulting in high salinity. After the acid leaching process breaks the intrinsic ion balance, it is easy to form precipitates of CaCO ₃ , CaSO _{4 ,} etc., causing blockage of the ore layer and the in-situ drilling. After many years of exploration and testing, CO ₂ +O _{2 in} situ leaching of uranium has broken through many key technologies and can solve this problem. At present, the industrial scale application of in-situ uranium mining in a uranium company has been successful. Leaching with CO ₂ can effectively reduce the pH value of the leaching agent, increase the concentration of HCO ₃ ^- , inhibit the formation of CO ₃ ^{2 -} , avoid the precipitation of Ca(Mg)CO _{3 in the} ore layer, and ensure the normal leaching. The addition of CO ₂ gas and the reaction of the CO ₂ aqueous solution with the carbonate in the ore to form HCO ₃ ^- can compensate for the loss of HCO ₃ ^- during the leachate treatment and increase the uranium concentration of the leachate.

(8) In-situ blasting technology

In-situ blasting is a new technology for uranium mine application in China in the 1980s. It has been applied to several uranium companies' granite-type uranium deposits. By the 1990s, miners were working to promote this technology on a larger scale. In the mid-2000s, the group of vein-type uranium deposits of a uranium company in the south achieved good results by using the upward fan-shaped deep-hole multi-stage differential blasting blasting technology, and the leaching of ore to recover uranium was in progress.

From the application of the past 10 years, this method has certain limitations, and is suitable for steeply inclined ore bodies with a water-repellent bottom plate and easy-impregnated ore with good permeability; and difficult to dip with water swelling and high mud mineral content. Ore, the ore body lacking a water-repellent bottom plate is less adaptable. In addition, some people think that in-situ blasting and leaching of the leaching solution is difficult to prevent leakage, so the in-situ blasting leaching will have an adverse effect on the groundwater environment.

(9) Process wastewater treatment

At present, the treatment of uranium acid acidic wastewater has formed a mature technical process, which is basically a method of minimizing the volume of the uranium-lime neutralization uranium-sludge plate frame filter according to strontium chloride. In this treatment system, through the trough treatment, the ρ(U) in the discharged wastewater is less than 0.3mg/L, and the radium activity concentration is less than 0.11Bq/L, which meets the GB23727-2009 "Uranium Mining and Metallurgy Radiation Protection and Environmental Protection" Prescribed wastewater discharge standards.

For uranium mine pit water treatment, uranium can also be recovered by series multi-tower ion exchange to ensure that the discharge water ρ (U) does not exceed the standard. At the same time, in the aspect of wastewater treatment and discharge, we pay attention to the application of emission reduction and energy-saving technology, and use the pit water as much as possible for the ore smelting treatment process to reduce the discharge of wastewater. The uranium mining and metallurgy industry has set emission reduction targets for each mining enterprise to ensure the completion of the country's overall goal of energy conservation and emission reduction.

Third, technological transformation makes the scale of production of enterprises

In the past 10 years, the state has issued a number of special “technical transformation” funds to China's uranium mining enterprises, involving all key uranium mining enterprises. These special reform funds follow the principle of advanced technology, mature technology, reliable equipment and improved production capacity, safety, environmental protection, "people-oriented" and "sustainable development". The funds invested have solved many problems left by the construction of mines in the 1950s, eliminated a number of backward processes and equipment, built many ground environmental protection facilities, and enhanced the security of workers in uranium mining enterprises to ensure and enhance uranium. The product capability and the need to meet the national nuclear energy development have laid a solid foundation. The main transformations are as follows.

(1) Strengthening underground infrastructure

In the past 10 years, the technological transformation has made great improvements to the infrastructure that the mine may affect the sustainable development from the perspective of sustainable development. These improvements include: upgrading of mine hoisting system equipment and facilities, hardening of mine transportation roads, ground-assisted construction, replacement of structures, improvement of downhole ventilation roadways, maintenance of underground water supply and drainage systems, and replacement of power supply systems. By the end of 2009, the upgrading system of major uranium mines had basically reached the national level in the early 21st century. Mine ore and material lifting capacity reached more than 25%.

(2) Improvement of water and metallurgical facilities

With the “technical transformation” funds, the main mine water and metallurgical processing plant of the whole mining and smelting system has been well transformed. The production line of the mine water and metallurgical plant has formed a scale. The transformed water and metallurgical plant has beautiful appearance, new equipment, large capacity, safety, energy saving and environmental protection. At the same time, due to the renewal of equipment, the improvement of personnel quality and the renewal of management concepts, uranium mining enterprises have changed the personnel-intensive state in the past. Now the per capita productivity has reached a high level, and some enterprises can reach 2t annual labor productivity. / (human · a) uranium, an increase of 150% before the transformation.

While improving the water and metallurgical facilities, the technical level of uranium water treatment has been improved, and the recovery rate of uranium ore heap leaching has reached 90%. In 2009, a uranium company in the south further processed the heap leaching tailings, which could reduce the grade of heap leaching tail slag to below 0.005%, which means that the recovery rate of ore leaching treatment will be over 95%, close to conventional smelting. Handle rhyme levels.

(3) Improved mine safety and labor protection conditions

In the past 10 years, the use of technological transformation funds has improved mine safety and labor protection conditions. In today's uranium mines, all workers exposed to radioactivity have to wear radioactive personal dosimeters. Larger mines are also equipped with personal self-rescue ventilators. Larger mines are also equipped with mine-specific ambulances. The mine has established personal health records for those engaged in radioactive work. Almost all mines have purchased mining suits, and they are replaced regularly, using helmets and ultra-long energy miner's lamps that have passed the inspection by the State Technical Supervision and Administration Department.

Since 2002, all mines have paid great attention to the improvement of mine operating environment, especially the upgrading, renovation and improvement of mine ventilation facilities. Many mines have established ventilation archives, implemented mechanical ventilation and scientific management, and regularly tested ventilation parameters. There are ventilation data records, monthly ventilation data reports, and annual ventilation summary improvement programs and measures. According to the relevant ventilation management personnel, the current random sampling of uranium mine ventilation meets the "Safety Technical Regulations for Uranium Mining and Metallurgy", and the pass rate is over 90%.

(4) Strengthening the treatment of wastewater

In the past 10 years, the discharge of uranium mine wastewater has been further controlled. According to the requirements of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the environmental protection facilities have been designed, constructed and constructed at the same time as the new construction projects. Wastewater treatment achieved a “one-vote veto”. The state has achieved multiple supervisions on the operation of environmental protection facilities for uranium mines, and both the internal and external environmental protection departments of the industry manage and supervise. After high standards and strict requirements, the current uranium mine discharge standards have become mandatory and can be achieved.

(5) laying the foundation for enterprises to increase production capacity

In the past 10 years, the “technical transformation” has improved the guarantee conditions for uranium mine ventilation safety facilities, improved the handling and carrying capacity of environmental protection facilities, increased the capacity of uranium mine transportation, and improved the uranium mine ore and uranium. Product output. At present, China's uranium mines can basically meet the requirements of the state for the quantity and quality of uranium mineral products, and meet the requirements of safe production, stable production and meeting development.

4. Land reclamation and mining activities are planned at the same time

In the past 10 years, land reclamation and mining activities have been planned at the same time. Mining permit applications must take into account the land reclamation program and the financing of reclamation. Uranium mines have already achieved mining and reclaiming land. Decommissioned mines have achieved large-scale land reclamation. Land reclamation after the retirement of a uranium mine is a model. From the mine pit to the water and metallurgical plant, from the mine transportation road to the tailings pipeline, the measures such as decontamination, new soil, radioactivity, artificial vegetation and retention are taken. It ensures that the radioactive standard of reclaimed land reaches: after the waste rock yard, tailings pond, heap leaching, in-situ immersion and open-air ruins, the average surface enthalpy precipitation rate does not exceed 0.74Bq/(m ² ·s); The highest specific activity requirement for nuclide ²²⁶ Ra after decontamination: in the average range of 100 m ² , the average value in the upper 15 cm thick soil layer is 0.18 Bq/g.

The new mine will include the land reclamation fee into the mining cost, and the reclamation fee will be calculated according to the amount of mining ore, and will be allocated to the special expense account on time for special use. Although this move has increased the cost of mining, it has guaranteed the protection of the environment and the protection of cultivated land.

V. The uranium market makes the company see the dawn

The international and domestic markets have driven the development of uranium mining enterprises, especially the international uranium market price has climbed from the 20th century. In 2007, U ₃ O ₈ reached a maximum of 155 US dollars / lb. In 2008 and 2009, although the international uranium market price was lower than that in 2007, it was still 6 to 7 times higher than the average price in the 20th century. This has greatly accelerated the worldwide uranium mining industry. In particular, the world energy crisis has led to the rise of international crude oil prices, which has led many countries to attempt to open up new energy sources, build nuclear power plants, and promote the development and utilization of natural uranium in the world. The author believes that by the next 10 years, the price of natural uranium will be stable at 40 to 60 US dollars / lb. This undoubtedly makes the uranium mining industry look good, making natural uranium mining full of hope.

Prospects for uranium mine development in the next 10 years

Time has entered 2010, the uranium mining industry has ushered in new opportunities and challenges. In the next 10 years, China's uranium mining industry will continue to follow the "scientific development concept" to a new future under the banner of reform and opening up.

(1) Dry filling mining will also be the main method of uranium mining in China

The application and change of mining methods is related to the habits of miners and depends on the innovation of mining equipment and the changes in the conditions of ore bodies. According to the characteristics of uranium deposits in China, the more suitable mining methods are still dry filling mining methods. It is believed that in the next 10 years, China's uranium mining methods will be based on dry filling mining methods.

(2) Heap leaching technology will also play a role

In the first 10 years of the 21st century, uranium mines in China have applied the leaching and uranium extraction process without exception, and they are skilled in the ore mining according to their actual conditions and piled up according to their own characteristics. The higher. Now, for the reprocessing of the heap leaching tailings, the tail slag grade of the heap leaching can be close to the tailing grade of the stirred leaching, so that the uranium recovery rate of the heap leaching is kept at a high level. Therefore, if the nature of the mined ore has not changed, the company will continue to make the heap leaching technology work and will not easily change the process.

(3) Conventional water and metallurgy technology should expand its application range

The rise in the price of natural uranium has led to a lower development of the recyclable resource cut-off grade, and the handling of difficult-to-treat ore has returned to the agenda. Benefits can also be obtained by high-cost methods. Some newly developed ore and heap leaching methods can obtain uranium by agitation with agitation, and have recycling benefits. Conventional water-smelting techniques such as agitation leaching-slurry separation-clear liquid ion exchange adsorption have a success rate, so their application will increase in difficult-to-treat ore and new mines.

(4) Breakthrough in in situ leaching technology

The in-situ leaching uranium mining technology has achieved certain results in the past 10 years. Compared with the 1990s, the technology is becoming more sophisticated and the level is increasing. It is expected that in the next 10 years, breakthroughs will be made in the in-situ leaching of low-permeability ore deposits - albeit a problem.

(5) Leaching grade will be further reduced

Once a resource is nearly exhausted as mining progresses, cherishing resources becomes a basic requirement for future mining. Trying to recover uranium from ore and minimizing uranium grade in tailings is an environmental requirement and a need for sustainable development. Therefore, further reducing the slag grade will become the pursuit goal of uranium processing in the next 10 years.

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