Fractal kinetic characteristics of uranium leaching from low permeability uranium-bearing sandstone

The pore structure of uranium-bearing sandstone is one of the critical factors that affect the uranium leaching performance. In this article, uranium-bearing sandstone from the Yili Basin, Xinjiang, China, was taken as the research object. The fractal characteristics of the pore structure of the uranium-bearing sandstone were studied using mercury intrusion experiments and fractal theory, and the fractal dimension of the uranium-bearing sandstone was calculated. In addition, the effect of the fractal characteristics of the pore structure of the uranium-bearing sandstone on the uranium leaching kinetics was studied. Then, the kinetics was analyzed using a shrinking nuclear model, and it was determined that the rate of uranium leaching is mainly controlled by the diffusion reaction, and the dissolution rate constant (K) is linearly related to the pore specific surface fractal dimension (DS) and the pore volume fractal dimension (DV). Eventually, fractal kinetic models for predicting the in-situ leaching kinetics were established using the unreacted shrinking core model, and the linear relationship between the fractal dimension of the sample's pore structure and the dissolution rate during the leaching was fitted.