Orano Mining, France
ORANO Mining is an industrial group which processes radio-active materials from ores to spent fuel so that they can be used to support the development of society, first and foremost in the field of energy. Its branch, ORANO Mining, is active in responsible exploration, production and processing of U ores in Asia, North America and Africa. It has a central R&D Center (CIME stands for Centre d’Innovation en Metallurgie Extractive) located in the middle of France which is strongly focused on natural U hydrometallurgy (SX, IX) at lab and pilot scales but deals also with associated metals like Th, Ra, Mo, V, Se, As, REO. It has also a very comprehensive and up-to-date analytical laboratory to support its activities in the mining sector but also for other industries often producing NORM materials and for environmental control during mine sites restoration. CIME, regulatory compliant, holds as well one unique license to store and process large quantities of U and Th in its facilities and to eliminate safely generated waste materials according to national and international standards.
Recent development studies (2017-2019) were more specifically about the recovery of V from U-contaminated muds generated by solar evaporation of an SX plant effluent in Niger during which the feasibility of the process was demonstrated during a 30 l/d pilot operation, associated with a modelling of the SX unit for up-scaling purposes. Quality compliance was checked with up-take companies in Europe and internal feasibility study performed.
