Akdala Uranium Mine

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A Uranium Mine in Kazakhstan owned by Uranium One and Kazatomprom. Akdala is an operating in-situ recovery uranium mine located in the Suzak region of South Kazakhstan Oblast, approximately 240 km in a direct line north of Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Commercial operations at Akdala commenced in January 2004, following a 2.25 year pilot-plant testing program.
Akdala is owned 100% by the Betpak-Dala Joint Venture, in which Uranium One has a 70% interest. The balance of the interest in the Betpak-Dala Joint Venture is owned by KazAtomProm, the Kazakh State uranium company.

Uranium production at Akdala is by means of in situ recovery. Leaching solution is injected into the uranium bearing formation at maximum depths of about 220 metres through a series of injection wells, passes through uranium bearing material and is recovered through a series of extraction wells.
Uranium bearing solutions are pumped from the well fields into sedimentation ponds and onward to the processing plant where these solutions are passed through a series of 50 m3 ion exchange columns loaded with a uranium-selective resin. Uranium from the solutions is adsorbed onto the resin and these uranium-bearing resins are transferred to 100 m3 desorption columns where uranium is stripped from the resin using an ammonium nitrate solution.

Strip solution is treated on-site with sodium hydroxide to precipitate a wet yellowcake product. Excess fluids in the precipitate are removed in a filter press and the resultant wet yellowcake is shipped to a drying facility located at Uranium One’s 70% owned South Inkai facility or to third party party processing and refining facilities.

At the end of 2010, Akdala had an average of 209 production wells in operation with an average flow rate of 1,677 m3 per hour and an average U concentration in the solution of 65 mg per litre. The number of wells in operation, and the flow from each well, is adjusted based on uranium content in the flow from each well to produce the targeted production rate.

An engineering company has been retained to design a satellite plant to facilitate treatment of solutions from production blocks located approximately 11 kilometres from the current facility. Construction of the new satellite plant is scheduled to commence in 2011 and the new production blocks are expected to commence production before the end of 2011.