Potential uranium supply from phosphoric acid: A U.S. analysis comparing solvent extraction and Ion exchange recovery

Based on U.S. phosphoric acid production in 2014, 5.5 million pounds of U3O8 could have been recovered, which is more than domestic U.S. mine production in the same year (4.9 million pounds U3O8). In comparison, uranium demand from U.S. nuclear plants in the same year was 53 million pounds U3O8 of which nearly 10% could have been met by uranium from phosphoric acid production. Annualized costs for a hypothetical uranium recovery plant are US$44-61 per pound U3O8 for solvent extraction, the process used historically in the United States to recover uranium from phosphoric acid. For ion exchange, not yet proven at a commercial scale for uranium recovery, the estimated costs are US$33-54 per pound U3O8. These results suggest that it is technically possible for the United States to recover significant quantities of uranium from current phosphoric acid production. For this type of uranium production to be economically attractive on a large scale, either recovery costs must fall or uranium prices rise.