Processes for the recovery of uranium

A method of recovering uranium, wherein the method comprises:

• a) providing a source of uranium;
• b) providing one or more CIX systems including a solid media that binds uranium;
• c) applying the source of uranium to the solid media under conditions that cause the uranium to bind to the solid media;
• and
• d) recovering the uranium by a single cycle or dual cycle CIX process;
• wherein the single cycle CIX process comprises a single CIX system which is a primary CIX system comprising a primary chelating or complexing cationic exchange (CE) media that binds uranium and the single cycle CIX system further comprises a gradient elution (GE) system or a resin crowding (RC) system;
• or
• wherein the dual cycle CIX process comprises two CIX systems which include the primary CIX system comprising a CE media that binds uranium and a secondary CIX system comprising an anionic exchange (AE) media that binds uranium and wherein the dual cycle CIX system further comprises a GE system and/or an RC system;
• and
• wherein the GE process performed in the primary CIX system of the single cycle or dual cycle CIX process comprises applying a dilute basic solution to the CE media during a regeneration pretreatment step of the primary CIX system;
• or
• wherein the RC process performed in the primary CIX system of the single cycle or dual cycle CIX process comprises adjusting the pH of a portion of a uranium loaded primary regeneration solution with a dilute acid to obtain a crowd solution;
• optionally, the method further comprises pretreating the source of uranium before step c), and optionally wherein pretreating comprises filtering or clarifying the source of uranium using an activated clay, an activated carbon, an activated silica, a flocculent, or a combination thereof.