Mineral recovery
AssigneeRichard Muriel Cherry
InventorRichard Cherry
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for extracting desired minerals from a mineral shale zone located below the surface at an existing oil and gas drilling site using a leaching solution. The system and methods include analyzing a mineral shale zone for one or more desired mineral located at a borehole of the oil and gas wellsite, wherein the borehole was produced with horizontal drilling, and wherein the mineral shale zone includes a plurality of fissures caused by fracking. The systems and methods include pumping the leaching solution into the borehole to mobilize one or more desired materials in the mineral shale zone, extracting from the mineral shale zone the one or more desired minerals, pumping the leaching solution and the desired minerals out of the borehole, and separating the one or more desired minerals from the leaching solution.
Claims19
A method for extracting one or more desired minerals from an existing oil and gas wellsite, the method comprising:
- analyzing a mineral shale zone for the one or more desired minerals, wherein a single borehole that was produced with horizontal drilling at the existing oil and gas wellsite extends from the surface into the mineral shale zone, and wherein the mineral shale zone includes a plurality of fissures caused by fracking, and wherein each of the one or more desired minerals are hard rock minerals;
- pumping a leaching solution through the single borehole and directly into the plurality of fissures in the mineral shale zone, wherein the leaching solution mobilizes the one or more desired minerals in the mineral shale zone;
- extracting from the mineral shale zone the one or more desired minerals with the leaching solution;
- pumping the leaching solution and the one or more desired minerals out of the plurality of fissures in the mineral shale zone, directly into the single borehole, and to the surface;
- processing the leaching solution at the oil and gas wellsite to remove oil and gas from the leaching solution;
- and
- separating the one or more desired minerals from the leaching solution.
A method for extracting minerals from a mineral shale zone, the method comprising:
- analyzing sample material produced from a single borehole to determine if a desired mineral is present in the sample material, wherein the single borehole extends from the surface at an oil and gas well site into the mineral shale zone and comprises a plurality of fissures at the mineral shale zone that were produced from fracking performed on the single borehole, and wherein the desired mineral is a hard rock mineral;
- pumping a leaching solution through the single borehole and directly into the plurality of fissures in the mineral shale zone, wherein the leaching solution mobilizes the desired mineral and oil and gas in the mineral shale zone;
- extracting from the mineral shale zone into the leaching solution the desired mineral with the leaching solution;
- pumping the leaching solution and the desired mineral out of the plurality of fissures in the mineral shale zone, directly into the single borehole, and to the surface;
- processing the leaching solution at the oil and gas wellsite to remove the oil and gas from the leaching solution;
- and
- separating the desired mineral from the leaching solution.
A system for extracting minerals from a mineral shale zone, the system comprising:
- a fracking system configured to frack a single borehole that extends from the surface at an oil and gas well site into the mineral shale zone to produce a plurality of fissures at the mineral shale zone;
- a leaching solution, wherein the leaching solution mobilizes one or more desired minerals and oil and gas from the mineral shale zone, wherein each of the one or more desired minerals are hard rock minerals;
- a surface pump configured to insert the leaching solution through the single borehole and directly into the plurality of fissures in the mineral shale zone;
- a downhole pump configured to pump the leaching solution and the one or more desired minerals out of the plurality of fissures in the mineral shale zone, directly into the single borehole, and to the surface;
- and
- a separator configured to process the leaching solution at the oil and gas wellsite to remove the oil and gas from the leaching solution and then separate the one or more desired minerals from the leaching solution.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.