Lithium, Uranium mineralization of salt lakes and underground sources of Central Tuva

Salted lakes and mineralized groundwater are the object of increased interest and intensive study as a source of cost-effective extraction of not only traditional products used for needs (sodium chloride, sodium bicarbonate, sodium sulphate), but also other useful components: lithium, bromine, potassium, boron compounds , magnesium, uranium, etc. Economic interest in hydromineral raw materials as a source of minerals is determined by the fact that, in comparison with conventional mining technologies, expensive stages of mining and quarrying, crushing rocks, pre-concentrating and subsequent transfer of components into the solution are excluded. Stocks of valuable components, for example lithium, are estimated in hundreds and more thousands of tons in the salars of South America (Chile, Bolivia, Argentina), as well as in the saline lakes of China. Bottomless mineralized lakes and solonchaks within Tuva are located mainly on the territory of the Ubsunur, Tuva, Turan-Uyuk basins. Specialized works on the presence of hydromineral resources in these objects have not been conducted previously. At present, new instrumentation and methodological possibilities for analyzing waters and bottom sediments create favorable conditions for a detailed study of their material composition. In this connection, a study was carried out to study the multicomponent composition of saline lakes, mineralized underground brines in this area with the financial support of the integration project "Hydromineral Resources of Siberia and Neighboring Territories: Ore-generating Potential, New Technologies for Complex Processing, Environmental Safety" No. 110, the results discussed in this work. The concentration of lithium in water studied by us in the lakes and underground brines of Central Tuva does not exceed the background contents (at the level of the lakes of Southern Siberia) (0.0042-0.71 mg/l). At the same time, an increased uranium content in water (0.07-0.092 ppm), in bottom sediments (1.92-9 ppm) of saline lakes and in freshwater subterranean brines (0.003-0.18 mg/l), exceeding the average concentration of its marine (oceanic) water (0.003 mg/l). If we consider that the technology of extracting uranium from water is possible when its content in water is 0.003 mg/l (from sea water), then concentrations of more than one dozen deserve attention. In addition to uranium, anomalies are noted for other valuable components, boron, bromine, iodine, strontium. From the number of toxic elements arsenic, selenium, mercury are present, their participation in the biological process and the impact on living organisms should still be investigated.

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