The Ranger uranium mill in northern Australia is a conventional sulfuric acid leach and tertiary amine solvent extraction plant. In 1998 a microbial infection in the solvent extraction plant caused the amine to be expelled from the hydrocarbon diluent into the aqueous raffinate, leading to a severe voluminous foaming in the CCD wash plant and subsequent shutdown of operations. This sudden occurrence was outside the knowledge of the industry and took ten months to fully identify and control. Production during this period was severely curtailed but has since returned to normal. This case history outlines the events that occurred and describes the investigative work that ultimately restored the plant to normal operations.
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