Although heap leaching using sulfuric acid was introduced to the uranium industry in the 1950s, sodium carbonate-bicarbonate (alkaline) heap leaching of low-grade Ca-carbonate-rich uranium ores has recently gained popularity. This study presents the results of two column tests on a calcrete-type uranium-vanadium (carnotite) ore using a mixture of sodium carbonate and bicarbonate The column leach data was therefore fitted to a simplified first-order kinetic model using two approaches, a general form and a second based on the reagent consumption per unit mass of the initial valuable species (U and V). As reagent consumption is a key economic factor in the heap leaching process, having a kinetic leaching model incorporating reagent consumption would provide useful techno-economic information. In this regards a new leaching index of (β) is also introduced. Both approaches of the first order kinetic model provide a good agreement with the column testing data.

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