Olympic Dam is a complex and integrated metallurgical facility based at the world’s largest single deposit of uranium bearing minerals. The ore found at the Olympic Dam site is an extremely complex mixture of a variety of useful minerals and other minerals / compounds which are not of economic importance, which are commonly referred to as gangue materials. In order to improve the efficiency of the acid dissolution stage of the uranium extraction process a greater understanding of the minerals and compounds present in the ore is required. Detailed knowledge of the composition and types of uranium minerals present is important as the dissolution properties of uranium minerals can vary significantly. A greater knowledge of the gangue materials present is also important as these can have a significant effect on various aspects of the dissolution process such as acid dosing requirements, potential adsorption of aqueous uranium species and effects on the equilibria of aqueous uranium species.

The mineralogy of un-treated and pre-treated Olympic Dam ore was investigated using synchrotron and non-synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The results obtained from standard x-ray diffraction (Cu-Kα ) and synchrotron x-ray diffraction (16.534KeV) were compared and a number of minerals were identified. The improved spatial resolution and intensity of the synchrotron data allowed for superior phase identification of a variety of minerals where standard x-ray techniques gave inconclusive results. Various pre-treatment methods were also found to influence the identification of minerals in Olympic Dam ore.