Magnetic and spectrometric studies of Al-Gor area, Southwestern Sinai, Egypt

Al-Gor area is a part of Southwestern Sinai of Egypt. It is considered as one of the most promising areas for mineralization in Egypt, being rich in many mineral deposits of: manganese, iron, copper, zinc, lead, cobalt, nickel, silver, gibbsite, and uranium. Besides, some industrial ore minerals such as kaolin and glass sand,… etc. are also found in this area. The area was studied by Gama-ray spectrometry to trace the radioactive anomalies, their concentrations and their relationship to the existing rocks, and by magnetic survey to study the relationship of radioactive anomalies and their trends with the trends of geological structures. The gamma-ray spectrometric maps show different levels over the surveyed area, which reflect contrasting radioelement contents for the exposed various rock types. The highest radiospectrometric levels are located in the northwest southeast direction and some scattered parts all over the study area. They are mainly associated with Um-Bogma Formation, bearing gibbsite. The study area possesses radiospectrometric ranging between 0.6 and 110.9 Ur as a total-count, 0.1 to 1.8 % for K, 0.1 to 99 ppm for eU and 0.1 to 23 ppm for eTh. The qualitative analyses of magnetic data show the existences of a number of different magnetic anomalies, with different amplitudes and frequencies as well as trends. From the application of spectral analyses of magnetic data, the regional and residual depths of magnetic anomalies can be computed. The first depth represents the regional (deep-seated) anomalies, at about 75 m and the residual (shallow-seated) anomalies, at about 20 m. The trends of the structures as derived from the spectrometric and ratio maps correspond to those inferred from the residual-component magnetic map, which reflects the effect of structures on the concentration of radioactive elements and, consequently mineralization.

Liquid-liquid separation of Cd (II) from Cu-sulfide cake prepared from sulfate solution of Abu-Thor ore material, Southwestern, Sinai, Egypt

The present work is concerned with the subsequent liquid-liquid separation of Cu, Zn, and Cd compounds from Cu- sulfide cake prepared from the sulfate solution of Abu-Thor Gibbsite-bearing shale ore material. This ore was found assaying 0.014% of Cd, 0.5% of Cu, and 0.55% of Zn as the elements of interest, by using 25% of H₂SO₄ solution at a solid/liquid ratio of 1/3 reaction time of 90 min at a temperature of 80◦C. About 96.5% of Cu (II), 99.3% of Cd (II), and 95.6% of Zn (II), respectively, were dissolved. After filtration, the prepared sulfate solution was treated with a suitable weight of Na₂S to prepare the working Cu-sulfide cake, which was then wholly re-dissolved in 10% of H₂SO₄ solution to prepare the working sulfate solution, which contained the elements of interest. This solution was gone out to the organic solvent process for complete separating between the Cu (II), Zn (II) ions in the organic phase, and Cd (II) ions in the aqueous phase. The effective extraction parameters such as pH value, LIX concentration, contact time, and organic/aqueous ratio were studied. The obtained data cleared that the pH value of 2.5 was found effective for separating Cd (II) in the aqueous phase and both Zn (II) and Cu (II) in the organic phase. Where Cd (II) ions were precipitated as CdS using Na₂S solution at pH 0.89, on the other side, both Zn (II) and Cu (II) were completely separated in the stripping process using Na₂CO₃ solution.