Mining or in situ disintegration of hard material – In situ conversion of solid to fluid – Input and output wells
Patent
1975-02-06
1980-12-16
Purser, Ernest R.
Mining or in situ disintegration of hard material
In situ conversion of solid to fluid
Input and output wells
299 13, E21B 4328, E21C 4114
Patent
active
042392861
ABSTRACT:
Producing a fracture network in deep rock, e.g., in an ore body, by detonating explosive charges sequentially in separate cavities therein, the detonations producing a cluster of overlapping fracture zones and each detonation occurring after liquid has entered the fraction zones produced by previous adjacent detonations. High permeability is maintained in an explosively fractured segment of rock by flushing the fractured rock with liquid, i.e., by sweeping liquid through the fracture zones with high-pressure gas, between sequential detonations therein so as to entrain and remove fines therefrom. Ore bodies prepared by the blast/flush process with the blasting carried out in substantially vertical, optionally chambered, drilled shot holes can be leached in situ via a number of holes previously used as injection holes in the flushing procedure and a number of holes which are preserved upper portions of the shot holes used in the detonation process. In the leaching of ore, fines are removed from fractures therein by intermittent or continuous flushing of the ore with lixiviant and high-pressure gas, e.g., air, using, in the case of the in situ leaching of an explosively fractured ore body, a lateral and upward flow of lixiviant from zones that have been less severely, to others that have been most severely, worked by multiple detonations in the ore body.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3630278 (1971-12-01), Parker
patent: 3822916 (1974-07-01), Jacoby
patent: 3823981 (1974-07-01), Lewis
patent: 3841705 (1974-10-01), Girard et al.
E. I. Du Pont de Nemours and Company
Purser Ernest R.
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