OPTIMIZATION OF DIFFERENT PHYSICAL PARAMETERS FOR BIOLEACHING OF URANIUM AND RARE EARTH ELEMENTS FROM NUBIA SANDSTONES, WADI NATASH, EASTERN DESERT, EGYPT

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Nuclear Materials Authority,Cairo, Egypt

2 Al Azhar University, Faculty of Science, Microbiology Department

Abstract

Five fungal species were isolated from two Nubia sandstone samples at Wadi Natash, Eastern Desert,
Egypt. These species were then tested for their ability in bioleaching of uranium and rare earth elements
from the two ore samples (G1&G2) whose assay of U attains 65 and 150ppm respectively while their assay
of REEs attains 1590 and 1152 ppm respectively . Among the isolated fungi both Aspergillus niger and
Aspergillus flavus have been the only species that give the highest leaching efficiencies .Thus in case of
G2 sample the leaching of U has reached up to 90% of uranium by using A.niger while that of REEs has
attained 84% by A .flavus under the studied optimum conditions .The latter involved shaking at 100rpm for
7days incubation time, 2% pulp density,> 0.2mm grain size and 35ºC incubation temperature. Production
of organic acids (oxalic and, citric acids) by two fungal species in their culture filtrate representes the key
of the realized bioleaching processes.

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