Milling Simulation & Background When uranium is mined it has to be separated from the ore in which it is found. This separation is done through the milling process. The ore is brought to the mill where it is ground into fine particles. Chemicals are added to dissolve the uranium, allowing it to be separated from the waste rock. In this activity you will be separating salt and sand, with salt representing uranium and sand representing waste rock.
? Question How can salt and sand be separated?
Materials Salt/sand/gravel mixture 50 mL of Water Cooking pot Heat source Screen
Filter Beaker Safety glasses Stirrer Scale or balance
Procedure 1. Collect 25 g of “uranium ore” (salt/sand/gravel mixture) from the “mine” (your teacher). 2. Filter the mixture through a screen to remove the largest particles, set these aside. 3. Mix the remaining ore with 50 mL of water, stirring well. 4. Put a filter over the beaker and pour the water over the filter. The material collected on the filter is your “waste rock.” Set this aside. 5. Pour the water from the beaker into the pot. Boil the solution until all of the water evaporates. 6. Collect the solid material left in the pot. This represents your “uranium.” 7. Measure the mass of “uranium” you mined. Also measure the mass of the waste materials you separated earlier (including the material removed with the screen). Record the data below. 8. Calculate the percentage of ore compared to waste rock from your initial mass of mined material.
Data Mass (grams)
Mass as Percentage
25
100%
Mass of Total Ore Materials Mass of Waste Rock Mass of Uranium
Finding the Percentages of Mined Materials Percentage of Waste Rock =
Mass of Waste Rock 25 g
Percentage of Uranium =
Mass of “Uranium” 25 g
Conclusion 1. What process was used to separate the salt and the sand?
2. Create a pie chart showing the percentage of uranium and waste rock produced from the original ore material. 3. How is this process similar to milling uranium?
©2019 The NEED Project
Energy From Uranium
www.NEED.org
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