Hydromineral Resources of Saline Lakes of Mongolia and Russian Altai

摘要

Soda lakes located close to uranium deposits of West Mongolia contain elevated concentrations of uranium, reaching, in some cases, 1 to 3 mg/l. The concentration of uranium in the lakes of Russian Altai is lower and varies from 0.001 to 0.03 mg/l. The greatest uranium resources (about 6000 tons) are stored in Hyargas Nuur Lake, Western Mongolia. In addition to uranium and salts of sodium and magnesium increased contents of boron (up to 250 mg/l), bromine (up to 1.1 g/l), lithium (up to 600 mg/l), strontium (up to 8 mg/l) were determined in the lake waters. A scheme for complex processing of uranium-bearing lake waters, the first stage of which includes extraction of uranium using iron-containing sorbents or anion exchange resins is considered. Uranium compounds, bromine, iodine, boron, lithium and other elements found in salt lakes are an important raw material base for the production of advanced materials.