Recovery of fluorine, uranium and rare earth metal values from phosphoric acid by-product brine raffinate

Claim 1

A process for simultaneous recovery of fluorine, uranium and rare earth metal values from a tricalcium phosphate mineral containing same, which comprises: a. contacting said mineral with hydrochloric acid to digest said mineral, thereby forming (1) a digest solution containing phosphoric acid, calcium chloride, fluorine, uranium and rare earth metal values and (2) an insoluble residue; b. separating said insoluble residue from said digest solution; c. contacting said separated digest solution with an organic solvent capable of dissolving phosphoric acid but having limited miscibility with water free of phosphoric acid, thereby forming an organic phase containing phosphoric acid and an aqueous phase containing calcium chloride and fluorine, uranium and rare earth metal values; d. separating said organic phase from said aqueous phase; e. admixing said separated aqueous phase with an amount of a basically reacting compound sufficient to effect a pH of at least about 9, thereby forming: 1. a basic solution containing calcium chloride and 2. precipitated solids containing fluorine, uranium and rare earth metal values; and f. separating the precipitated solids containing fluorine, uranium and rare earth metal values from said basic solution.