Distribution and modes of occurrence of uranium in coals of Eastern Yunnan, China

International Journal of Coal Science & Technology

Guijian Liu¹  Fei Liu²  Xin Wang²  Qihang Cao²  Qiyan Feng³  Qingjun Meng³ 

[1] CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China;College of Life Sciences, Huaibei Normal University, 235000, Huaibei, China;School of Environment Science and Spatial Informatics, China University of Mining and Technology, 221116, Xuzhou, China;

关键词: Coal;    Uranium;    Distribution;    Eastern Yunnan;    China;   

DOI  :  10.1007/s40789-021-00455-z

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Uranium is an environmentally hazardous element, and is commonly present at trace levels (2.4 μg/g for world coals) in coal deposits. However, selected coal deposits could be highly enriched in uranium. In this study, 15 coal samples were collected from Eastern Yunnan coal deposits, China, aiming to characterize the distribution and the occurrence of uranium in those coals. In studied samples, uranium content varied from 0.36 to 8.28 μg/g, with an average value of 3.76 μg/g. Generally, uranium content in coals from northern coal mines (3.02 ± 2.44 μg/g, n = 5) were lower than it in southern coal mines (4.13 ± 2.30 μg/g, n = 10). Uranium in coal samples showed no obvious correlation with total sulfur, whereas was positively correlated with ash yield. The results of sequential chemical extraction procedure confirm that organic-bound is the dominant occurrence of uranium. The slight enrichment of uranium in studied coals was probably attributed to sedimentation processes, hydrological conditions and tectonic structure of the coal deposits.

【 授权许可】

CC BY