The disclosure relates to a beneficiation process for low grade uranium ore, wherein the process comprises a primary beneficiation stage comprising: wet scrubbing the low grade uranium ore to separate the low grade ore into a fine fraction and a coarse fraction; screening the fine fraction according to a size separation parameter to provide an undersize fraction and an oversize fraction, wherein the uranium predominantly reports to the undersize fraction; and separating the undersize fraction to produce an intermediate uranium concentrate. The intermediate uranium concentrate may be further processed in a secondary beneficiation stage to produce a high grade uranium concentrate.

Disclosed herein is a method for recovering an acid or a base during a metal extraction process. The method comprises contacting a feed stream comprising the acid or base and the metal with an ultrafiltration membrane to produce an ultrafiltration retentate and an ultrafiltration permeate, and contacting the ultrafiltration permeate with a nanofiltration membrane. The nanofiltration retentate produced comprises a majority of the metal from the feed stream, and the nanofiltration permeate produced comprises a majority of the acid or base from the feed stream. Also disclosed herein is a recovery apparatus for recovering an acid or a base during a metal extraction process.

A useful metal may be recovered from a solution of a nitrate salt of a metal cation or a metal oxycation, by adding the solution of the nitrate salt to a formation column having an inlet and an outlet nozzle, the solution of the nitrate salt being added in a dropwise fashion through the inlet. The formation column contains a recirculating solution containing a base selected from the group consisting of ammonia, ammonium hydroxide, an alkali metal hydroxide, and an alkaline earth metal hydroxide. The nitrate salt reacts with the base in the recirculating solution to produce a metal oxide salt or a metal hydroxide salt as a precipitate. The precipitate and the recirculating solution exit the formation column through the outlet nozzle and are captured the precipitate in a basket beneath the formation column while recovering the recirculating solution in a catch tank under the basket. The recovered recirculating solution is pumped from the catch tank to the formation column. The nitrate salt of the metal cation may be a nitrate salt of a radioactive metal cation, e.g., uranium or a uranyl cation.