Direct leaching of rare earth elements and uranium from phosphate rocks

Phosphate rocks can contain considerable amounts of accompanying uranium and rare earth elements (REEs). Interest to extract these elements during phosphate rock processing to mineral fertilizer is given as both uranium and REEs are valuable and toxic. Recovering these elements is thus advantages from a resource conserving and environmental protection point of view. Past efforts to recover uranium and REEs focused on extracting these elements from the intermediate products (phosphoric acid and phosphogypsum) during de-hydrate wet phosphoric acid production. Another approach, that is discussed here, is direct leaching of uranium and REEs from phosphate rocks before phosphate rock processing. First successful lab scale experiments with a selected leaching reagent and phosphate rock from the Abu Tartur mine in Egypt are presented and discussed.