Improvement of uranium bioleaching from uranium embedded in granite using microwave pretreatment

We evaluated the effect of uranium bioleaching and mechanism by microwave pretreatment on uranium embedded in granite. The maximum uranium bioleaching ratio reached 93.1% after an ore sample was pretreated with microwave at 10 kW for 10 min, which was approximately 20% higher than untreated. After microwave pretreatment, the generation of micro-cracks can provide more adsorption sites for bacteria and promote contact between uranium-bearing minerals and leaching solution, a portion of the strongly bound uranium in the uranium ore was transformed into weakly bound uranium, and insoluble U(IV) into soluble U(VI), further improving uranium leaching ratio.