الفهرس 
INTRODUCTIONOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
During the last 35 years, uranium has become a widely used source for nuclear energy especially for the nuclear electrical generation plants. In the latter, uranium is considered the main fuel. The nuclear fuel activities start with exploration and mining of uranium ore rocks, then milling the uranium ore materials reproduce the base material for the uranium fuel cycle namely the yellow cake (Y.C.).
Uranium resources in Egypt can be classified into two main classes namely: the conventional (mined and milled basically as the main product for uranium) and the non-conventional resources (uranium production is a by-product).
The nuclear Materials Authority of Egypt (NMA) has actually discovered several uranium conventional resources. The available assured reserves upon which a full scale industry can be set up are indeed represented by the following two non-conventional uranium (also thorium and rare earths) resources, namely:
a) Phosphate ores from which assured reserves in the Egyptian territories are available. Such ores are thus considered the first commercial resource for uranium in the Arab Republic of Egypt.
b) Black sands deposits distributed along the northern coast from which assured reserves are also available. They represent the second choice for non-conventional uranium resource in the Arab Republic of Egypt A.R.E. (in addition to major rare earth elements and thorium).
The study sample is from the area situated directly south the Qena – Safaga road at sign 85 km. El Missikat granite pluton is just 3 km south of the mentioned sign, bounded by Lat. 26o15/ to 26o33/N and Long. 330 15\ to 330 30\ E in the Eastern Desert. On the other hand, it has to be indicated that the uranium occurrence is indeed strongly associated with silicified shear and fracture zones which extend in the peripheral parts of the granitic pluton (younger late collision post-orogenic pink granites). The shear zone is thus filled with siliceous material which belongs to three generations (light, black and red) in El Missikat area.
The present work is essentially concerned with uranium recovery from Jabal El Missikat mineralization hosted in the recent recorded siliceous veins. In the light of the recoded mineralization and host rock characteristics, it was found that acid leaching is actually quite suitable. In addition, the simple composition of the working ore material favors indeed its heap leaching followed by uranium concentration from the leach liquor by the ion exchange technique.
To realize the objectives of the present work, a study sample from El Missikat mineralization assaying 3030 ppm uranium was kindly provided from El Missikat project from the recently and the highest recorded anomaly. Before studying the uranium recovery from the latter by dissolving maximum uranium constituent under moderate conditions with minimum dissolution of the other undesirable gangues, it was found necessary to endeavor the relevant factors of acid agitation leaching of the ore working sample. These factors involving acid type, acid concentration, agitating time and leach acid to ore ratio as well as the slurry temperature and estimate through uranium analysis uranium leaching efficiency.
After crushing, grinding and sieving, uranium analysis of each grain size fraction shows that uranium is well distributed in the grain size of +18 mesh sizes but the majority of the weight is concentrated in the size between – 18 +40.