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Sparton
Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE:SRI) reported
today that its ongoing uranium extraction testing program has successfully
produced a small amount of yellowcake (U3O8) from fly ash samples
taken from the China Guodian Xiaolongtang Thermal Power Plant in
central Yunnan Province PRC). The test work is being done by the
Company's processing engineering consulting firm Lyntek Inc. of
Denver , Colorado , USA . Yellowcake (U3O8) is the uranium compound
produced and sold by most uranium producers and is the uranium
bearing raw material whose price is quoted in international markets.
This
test, the first one to attempt to produce yellowcake, was
qualitative in nature and used 6.1 kg of mixed fly ash currently
being produced by the old and new burners at the Xiaolongtang
station. The ash averaged about 160 ppm U or 0.40 lb/tonne
U3O8. Leaching was done with sulphuric acid and the yellowcake
was produced by passing the filtered leach solution through
a standard ion exchange resin, stripping the resin and precipitating
the uranium compound. This process is essentially similar
to the uranium extraction and yellowcake production methods
used by primary uranium ore processing plants or ISL (in
situ leach) operations using an acidic leaching solution.
A photo of the yellowcake precipitate is shown on the Company
website www.spartonres.ca . |
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New
test work currently in progress will focus on refining the leaching,
filtering and ion exchange processes. The leach solutions contain
significant amounts of gypsum and iron oxide which require removal
by filtering prior to passing them through the ion exchange system.
The next tests will evaluate uranium extraction from ash from the
large waste pile at Xiaolongtang. A 20 kg representative sample
taken from drill holes used to test the waste pile will be used
for this work.
WASTE
PILE DRILLING PROGRAM
42
drill holes totalling approximately 700 metres were completed in
September in a systematic pattern over the entire fly ash waste
pile at Xiaolongtang with a 50 metre average hole spacing. The
pile averages about 17 metres in thickness, and contains about
5.3 million tonnes of ash. Systematic sampling of the ash has been
completed and samples are currently being analysed at a laboratory
in China . Duplicate samples have been taken and sent to SGS Lakefield
Laboratories in Toronto , Canada for quality control. The results
of the analyses will provide an average uranium content for the
waste pile ash and also the content of several other trace heavy
metals including molybdenum (similar to the uranium content) and
vanadium (twice the uranium content ) which have been identified
in earlier analyses. Leaching and uranium extraction tests will
begin shortly on this material.
DISCUSSION
The
production of yellowcake from waste coal ash is another milestone
in Sparton's ongoing secondary source uranium recovery programs
in China and elsewhere. The Company and its process engineering
consultants have demonstrated that U3O8 can be produced from
this material. Refinement of the process methodologies for extraction
will be a priority activity for future work. Elsewhere waste
ash sampling programs are underway in Hungary and southern Africa
, and new results will be reported as they become available.
Sparton's
international exploration and evaluation programs are being carried
out under the direct supervision of A. Lee Barker, P. Eng., P
Geol., the Company's President and CEO who is a Qualified Person
under National Instrument 43-101. |
