Kinetic reactive transport modelling of column tests for uranium In Situ Recovery (ISR) mining

The In Situ Recovery (ISR) mining method consists in mining ore by in situ chemical leaching with acid or alkaline solutions. Numerical modelling of the interaction between solution and rock is examined in order to improve the management of this process. Three different phenomena have to be taken into account in a numerical reactive transport simulation of uranium ISR mining: (1) the geochemical reactions; (2) the kinetics of these reactions, and (3) the hydrodynamic transport rate compared to the reaction kinetics. Two ‘classical’ types of leaching experiments were performed: (1) tests in batch reactors; and (2) extraction in flow-through columns. A comprehensive interpretation of the complete leaching test results (mineralogy of the samples and chemical analysis of leachates) led to the development of a conceptual model with reasonable assumptions about dissolution and precipitation reactions during the acid leach of the columns. This conceptual model was tested and validated by numerical modelling of the two types of laboratory experiments. Batch experiments were simulated with the geochemical code CHESS in order to model the leachate solutions and to calibrate the geochemical reaction paths and their kinetic laws. Column experiments were simulated with the coupled hydrodynamic and geochemical code HYTEC by using kinetic laws calibrated on batch experiments. The geochemical models with kinetics successfully simulated the trend of leachate’ chemistry in the two types of experimental tests (batch and column). Numerical simulation of leaching tests enabled us to translate the chemical release sequence, observed during experiments, into a sequence of dissolution–precipitation reactions. Finally, it resulted in a proposal of a 1D hydrogeochemical transport model of the ISR process at laboratory-scale. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis conducted on the 1D-calibrated model made it possible (1) to determine factors controlling leaching reactions; and (2) to quantify their respective influence on the uranium recovery in terms of acid consumption and leachate volume to treat in the plant. Although experimental and numerical simulation results do not perfectly fit the field-scale observations, it was possible to define not only the factors controlling uranium dissolution and the precipitation of secondary mineral phases in the deposit, but also to determine the relative importance of these factors.