Processing of rare earth and uranium containing ores and concentrates

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A method (10) for the hydrometallurgical processing of rare earth and uranium containing ores and concentrates, the method comprising the steps of : (i) Passing a rare earth ore to a concentration step in which is produced a rare earth phosphate concentrate (12); (ii) Passing the rare earth phosphate of step (i) to a first atmospheric leach step (16) in which the rare earth phosphate concentrate is leached in weak acid; (iii) Passing the product of step (ii) to a first solid liquid separation step (18); (iv) Passing the liquid product of step (iii) to a uranium recovery circuit (20); and (v) Passing the solids product of step (iii) to second atmospheric leach step (24) in which the solids are leached in strong acid and in which substantially all the rare earth elements present precipitate as sodium rare earth double sulphates, wherein the conditions of the first and second leach steps (16, 24) are controlled such that substantially no silica gelling occurs.