Uranium tailings, the primary solid waste from uranium production, are characterized by vast quantity, high radioactivity, and substantial environmental risks. This study systematically investigated a combined magnetic separation–reverse flotation process for extracting quartz from uranium tailings. Process mineralogical analyses, including XRD, MLA, and XRF, revealed that the tailings are mainly composed of quartz, potassium feldspar, albite, and almandine, with quartz accounting for approximately 43% and non-magnetic/weakly magnetic materials making up 91.06% of the total. The experimental results showed that after high-intensity magnetic separation at 1.8 T, the SiO2 grade increases to 76.36%. Under the conditions of pH 2, a mixed collector system of sodium oleate and dodecylamine at a mass ratio of 1:7, and a total dosage of 2000 g/t, the SiO2 grade further rises to above 90%. This work proposes a green process route for extracting quartz from uranium tailings, which not only achieves a reduction in radioactive tailings but also successfully obtains high-grade quartz products.
Wu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.