The in-situ leaching wastewater of uranium mining and metallurgy is characterized by large volume, acidity, and low radioactivity, etc. The evaporation ponds of some uranium mining and metallurgical enterprises cannot meet the demand of expanding production. The advantages and disadvantages of forced evaporation technology such as vacuum evaporation, three-effect evaporation and MVR(Mechanical Vapor Recompression) evaporation were compared and analyzed. It was found that, under long-term use, MVR technology has higher efficiency, lower exhaust emission, and lower energy consumption, making it relatively more suitable for in-situ leaching wastewater. Based on MVR technology, a fully integrated control forced evaporation system was designed and constructed. The heating temperature and material of the equipment were determined according to the waste liquid composition. The on-site device achieved automatic control of temperature, pressure, and liquid level, as well as continuous cyclic evaporation. The actual test shows that the evaporation capacity and efficiency coefficient of the device are positively correlated with the evaporation temperature.

The remediation of groundwater environment in the post-mining area at in-situ leaching uranium mines has aroused widespread public concern. The long-term change of groundwater U concentration in the post-mining area is still unclear. Field investigation and numerical simulation methods were comprehensively used in this study, and a typical post-mining area of a “CO₂+O₂” in-situ leaching uranium mine in northern China was taken as the research object. On the basis of identifying the distribution characteristics of groundwater U in the post-mining area, the natural attenuation trend of U in groundwater at different times was quantitatively predicted, and the long-term change of U concentration was quantified. The results show that the concentration of U in the groundwater in the post-mining area is 0.273~5.24 mg/L, and the sampling points with U concentration lower than 2.5 mg/L accounted for 64%. The simulation results show that in the post-mining stage, the groundwater flow direction tend to the regional groundwater flow direction. When the natural attenuation process of U is not considered, U in groundwater migrate to 167 m downstream after 100 years of final mining, and the predicted migration distance is conservative. When the natural attenuation of U is considered, the migration distance of U is only 42 m after 100 years of final mining. The concentration of U in the groundwater in the mining area is reduced from the initial 2.5 mg/L to below 1.0 mg/L. Natural attenuation can reduce the migration distance and the concentration of groundwater U in the post-mining area, and the monitored natural attenuation (MNA) technology can be used as an alternative scheme for groundwater remediation at in-situ leaching uranium mines in the future.

Due to the influence of special mining technology in open-pit mines, shoveling equipment is prone to safety accidents during operation. Aiming at the problems of large inspection blind area and untimely response in the management of shoveling equipment in open-pit mine enterprises, a high slope and cross operation control scheme of shoveling equipment is proposed based on high precision positioning technology. The high slope operation control scheme combines terrain data, uses positioning technology, through on-site measurement and operation scheduling, real-time monitoring and alarm, on-site processing and record verification, real-time monitoring of the operation height of the shoveling equipment and judging whether it exceeds the safety range. The cross operation control scheme of shoveling equipment monitors the operation spacing in real time through the confirmation of operation spacing before operation, the audit of scheduling plan and the inspection of operation spacing. The proposed control scheme realizes the safe and fine management of the operation spacing and excavation height of the shoveling equipment, effectively reduces the risk of accidents in the process of open-pit mining, and improves the operation efficiency.

Uranium conversion production mainly includes fluorination, hydrofluorination, and electrolytic fluorine production processes. Among which the electrolytic fluorine production process and fluorination process are the main factors affecting production capacity and continuous and stable operation. Based on the analysis of the principle and current situation of electrolytic fluorine production, the influences of hydrogen fluoride feeding, carbon plate operation and maintenance, electrolyte operation parameters, etc. on the operation of electrolytic fluorine production process were studied. The key points of control of a small amount of continuous hydrogen fluoride feeding and carbon plate current stability were analyzed. Measures such as optimization of hydrogen fluoride feeding mode, depolarization treatment process, carbon plate current monitoring, and regular electrolyte replacement were adopted. The operation of electrolytic fluorine production process is more stable and efficient.

Rare earth elements are extensively utilized in defense technology and high-tech industries, leading to a surge in global demand. However, conventional recoverable rare earth resources are limited, necessitating the development and utilization of associated rare earth resources. Taking a sandstone-type uranium deposit in Ili Basin, Xinjiang as the research subject, using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) to test the content of rare earth elements and analyze their occurrence states. The differences in rare earth element occurrence under various particle sizes of uranium minerals are systematically investigated. The results show that associated rare earth element content within the Ili Basin's sandstone-type uranium deposit ranged from 85.48×10^-6 to 221.17×10^-6. The overall REE curve using average values derived from Australian Shale demonstrate a right-upper inclination trend, indicating fractionation between heavy and light rare earth elements during uranium mineralization processes. Fine ores with particle sizes <0.425 mm exhibite a higher propensity for REE occurrence. The correlation between rare elements such as Mo and Sc and rare earth elements is significant, and both have similar ore-forming environments. The mass concentration of rare earth elements in the production liquids of in-situ leaching site for uranium range from 23.92 to 26.03 mg/L, which reached the standard of recycling and use. The content of rare earth elements in the production liquid is medium rare earth elements, light rare earth elements and heavy rare earth elements from high to low. It is feasible to recover rare earth elements from sandstone uranium deposits using acid in-situ leaching process.

To address the wastewater treatment issue in electrode uranium plating process, an evaporation concentration device suitable for the special requirements of this process has been developed, which can effectively reduce the discharge of radioactive process wastewater. The principle of this device is to vaporize the water in the waste liquid through micro-vacuum distillation, condense it back into liquid water, and then discharge it externally. The remaining concentrated water and solid in the evaporator are treated as radioactive solid waste. Considering the actual application scenarios, leak-proof foundation pits are set up to address equipment failure or emergency shower problems. The device uses neutralizing tanks to handle the acidity and alkalinity of the waste liquid, and is equipped with a detection port to ensure that the waste liquid after condensation meets the emission standards.

The previous studies of Mengqiguer uranium deposit centred on the directing exploration work and summary of metallogenic regularity. There are few studies on groundwater hydrodynamic field in upstream and downstream of the mining area affected by in-situ leaching. It is found that the linkage between groundwater level and seasonal variation is not obvious in the process of uranium exploration outside the mining area. These changes are quite different from the understanding of the natural flow field of groundwater in the previous exploration process. Previous studies have shown that the groundwater level throughout the deposit varies seasonally. In view of this, this paper analyzes the influence of in-situ leaching mining on the groundwater system of Mengqiguer deposit by collecting the hydrogeological data in the exploration stage and the actual measurement. Through the analysis, it is concluded that the upstream of the in-situ leaching mining area is not affected, the underground water level in the mining area is slowly declining, and the underground water level in the downstream of the mining area continues to decline. This study can provide a new idea for the understanding of groundwater hydrodynamic field in the process of uranium exploration outside the mining area, and also provide data reference for in-situ leaching of uranium.

Hard rock uranium mines are an important part of China's natural uranium production capacity. Due to policy adjustments, many hard rock uranium mines are currently in a maintenance state. Production facilities such as ore mining and hydrometallurgy processes are stopped, and only tailings(slag) storage, wastewater treatment and other waste treatment facilities maintain operation. There is a significant difference in radioactive waste emissions from the production period, with an overall reduction in the number and release of source items, and significantly reducing the radiation impact on the surrounding environment and the public. After the shutdown of a typical hard rock uranium mine, the radon concentration and individual dose contribution values decreased by 25.4% to 44.5%. Based on the characteristics of the source terms during the maintenance period, optimization suggestions for environmental protection measures during the maintenance period of hard rock uranium mines are proposed to further reduce the source terms. At the same time, an adjustment plan for effluent and environmental monitoring is provided to ensure timely detection of problems while reducing manpower and increasing maintenance workload, ensuring the radiation safety and controllability of the shutdown mines.

In response to the problems in resource reserve management, combined with the actual situation of a certain open-pit uranium molybdenum mine, a mining software management platform is adopted to establish the basic database and spatial model of the mine, and estimate the benchmark number of dynamic resource reserve management. Based on production data such as borehole measurement, sampling, ladder plane, and slope geological logging, establish and update multi-dimensional engineering information spatiotemporal data, construct different spatiotemporal relationships between ore bodies or blocks and the entire deposit, as well as algorithms for their area, shape, thickness, length, resource reserves, etc., and then reconstruct ore body or block models and estimate resource reserves, automatically realizing visualized dynamic management of resource reserves. The visualization and dynamic management of resource reserves can guide mining production in a timely manner through the rapid exploration and mining comparison, and can also provide services for the production exploration, mining design, and improvement of production planning of unexplored ore bodies or blocks. This management method has achieved good results in the production process of open-pit uranium molybdenum mines.

Taking a domestic uranium mine as the research object, a three-dimensional geological initial model of the deposit was constructed by the basic data such as drilling location, inclinometry, samples, and lithology for geological exploration of the deposit, and the resource reserves of the deposit were estimated. According to the deposit exploration, production exploration, and mining processes, the three-dimensional geological model, resource types, and development status of the ore bodies/blocks were dynamically updated. The logical relationships among three-dimensional models of mineral deposits at different times was constructed to realize the automatic monitoring of mineral resource retention, changes, and reasons for changes, in order to grasp the background of mineral resource quantity. The research on resource utilization was carried out, the annual and cumulative leaching rates was calculated, the recoverable reserves (confirmed reserves) of ore bodies/blocks were predicted based on mining production data, and the targeted resource utilization plans for different ore bodies/blocks were proposed accordingly to improve the resource utilization efficiency of the mine.