Hydraulic fracturing a rock mass
AssigneeNewcrest Mining Limited
InventorGabriel Jose Amorer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Methods of hydraulic fracturing a rock mass as part of a method of establishing a block cave mine or extending an existing block cave mine includes (a) drilling a plurality of holes downwardly into the rock mass using drill rig equipment positioned on the ground above a proposed or existing block cave mine; and (b) injecting a hydraulic fracturing fluid into the drilled holes from above-ground hydraulic fracturing equipment and inducing fractures in the rock mass. A hydraulic fracturing equipment installation located above-ground drills a plurality of holes downwardly into the rock mass and injects a hydraulic fracturing fluid into the drilled holes and induces fractures in the rock mass. A non-metallic casing for drilled holes is also disclosed.
Claims11
A method of hydraulic fracturing a rock mass as part of a process for establishing a block cave mine or extending an existing block cave mine, the method comprising:
- (a) drilling a plurality of holes downwardly into the rock mass using above-ground drill rig equipment positioned above a proposed or existing block cave mine, and casing and lining each hole to form a plurality of cased-and-lined holes;
- and
- (b) perforating each cased-and-lined hole to form a plurality of cased-and-lined-and-perforated holes, and injecting a hydraulic fracturing fluid into the cased-and-lined-and-perforated holes from above-ground hydraulic fracturing equipment so that the hydraulic fracturing fluid flows through perforations in the plurality of cased-and-lined-and-perforated holes into the rock mass and induces fractures in the rock mass.
A method of hydraulic fracturing a rock mass as part of a process for establishing a block cave mine or extending an existing block cave mine, the method comprising:
- (a) drilling a first hole downwardly into the rock mass using drill rig equipment positioned on ground at a location;
- (b) lining the drilled hole with a casing and forming a cased hole;
- (c) pumping cement or any other suitable lining material down the cased hole to a lower end of the cased hole and then up into an annular space between a hole wall and the casing to form a cased-and-lined hole with a lining between the hole wall and the casing;
- (d) positioning a well head on the cased-and-lined hole;
- (e) perforating the casing and the outer lining of the cased-and-lined hole at spaced intervals along a section of the drilled hole with a perforating apparatus and forming a cased-and-lined-and-perforated hole;
- (f) injecting a hydraulic fracturing fluid into the cased-and-lined-and-perforated hole via the well head and forcing hydraulic fracturing fluid through perforations into the rock mass and inducing fractures in the rock mass;
- and
- (g) carrying out (a) to (f) for each of a plurality of additional holes.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.