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OwnerGilbert Alan Hice, Thomas Joseph Hiceinventors
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A borehole subsurface mining system and methods for generating sonically pulsed hydraulic jets for subsurface excavation and slurry extraction, combining modulated oscillating energy at relatively low frequencies produced from a sonic drill head of working sonic core drilling rigs in combination with energy and water flow from a pressurized pumping system, to perform pulsed jet slurry mining of underground resource deposits through at least one partially cased subterranean borehole using a sonic drill head member and rod string members in relation to which the attached inventive pulsed jetting apparatus and methods operate. The system design and methods includes an adaptably attachable, sectional, tubular combination apparatus assembly with at least one casing member in general axial alignment comprised of sonic rod, jetting educator coupling, transition rod, jetting sub-coupling and jetting shoe rock bit members. Also includes methods for sump heavy concentrate core barrel extraction and for optimizing high density slurry extraction.
1) A sonically pulsed hydraulic jetting system assembly intended to be used with a commercial sonic drill rig with movable tower attachments for subterranean modulated low-frequency (equal to or less than 300 Hz) for sonically pulsed jet borehole mining having a sonic drill head, wherein the sonic drill head can be securely attached to a relatively elastic sonic rod, to which the system is attached and functions when adaptably attached by hydraulic conduit to a high pressure high volume operating pump system with a water reservoir, and within a borehole that is at least partially cased, comprising:
9) A method for mining minerals, gems and metals from a target deposit comprising the steps of identifying a target deposit examining sonic core samples, emplacement of a casing string into or to the top-most part of the deposit using a sonic core drill rig, which may be modified with additional sonically pulsed jetting system assembly facilitating features including a high-pressure and high-volume fluid pump, conduits, seals, pressure release valves, one-way check valves, and other supportive equipment, an uncased borehole extension is left beneath the casing to be used as a sump member to collect concentrated heavy debris and for progressive insertion of the sonically pulsed jetting system assembly attached to the sonic rod string to facilitate cutting and disaggregating the subsurface target minerals from the uncased borehole in 360 degrees rotation, inserting a sonic rod string having an adjustable length by adding or subtracting various sections (i.e. rods, couplings, transition rod, sub-coupling and bit members) sufficient to obtain the desirable depth for mining, into the securely placed sonic casing string that has been inserted into or to the top-most level of a subterranean mineral target deposit to be excavated, slurry generated and recovered using sonically-pulsed jet nozzles that are structurally positioned in components of the sonically pulsed jetting system assembly and structurally manufactured by 3-D printing, machined or threadably integrated within a shoe rock bit, sub-coupling and also with pulsed jetting eductor-type couplings that attach sonic rods together to facilitate slurry lift in the annulus within and through the casing string, attaching a high-pressure fluidic pumping member, with a communicating fluid reservoir, to a conduit with at least one check valve and at least one safety pressure-release valve attached to the sonic core drill rig's sonic head fluid transfer conduit system, or to a modified swivel adaptor apparatus, to allow fluid flow one way from the sonic drill head into and through the sonic rod string, inserting the sonic rod string and attached sonically pulsed jetting system assembly through the casing member string and into the borehole so that the bottom-end of the sonically pulsed jetting system assembly having laterally cutting one or more pulsed jetting nozzles to cut, fracturing and disaggregate mineral target below the casing member and juxtaposed to the targeted mineral deposit, generating fluid flow by engaging the pumping member to pump fluid into the sonic rod string while oscillating the sonic head at an appropriate frequency for energy transfer to the fluid column, rotating the resonating sonic rod string and attached sonically pulsed jetting system assembly 360 degrees or any less angulation for different excavation cavity shapes and at varying speeds while moving the pulsed jetting streams up and down in the borehole beneath the casing bottom end and against the targeted mineral matrix, fracturing and cutting matrix to form slurry, observing the lifted slurry exiting out of the annulus at the top-end of the casing string into a slurry catch box, or monitoring slurry density meters from where it is pumped by slurry pump to a processing plant, e.g. slurry box at a processing platform where the slurry is classified using one or more screens, jigs, sluices, gravity concentrators, where water separated from slurry particulate matter and is clarified using at least one hydrocyclone and/or screen that is collected in a cistern and either pumped to the clarified water reservoir or filtered by a bone char filtration system or used in further processing or to another water-holding reservoir, using a plurality of fluidic pulsing jetting nozzles and division of water with pump and sonic head adjustable cyclic volume and pressure transfers to generate multiple mining effects including lateral, either horizontal or angled, which may be on diametrically opposite sides of a sub-coupling to neutralize reactive thrust destabilization, for pulsed jetting to fracture mineral matrix and also downwardly directed pulsing jet or jets for further cutting and dispersing subterranean excavated cavity bottom slurry and sump slurry back into solution allowing greater potential for it to be lifted through the annulus by the Venturi effect from the eductor-type pulsed jetting eductor couplings with the pulsed jetting eductor nozzles oriented to partial vacuum and diffusing chambers in the annulus to facilitate lift of slurry to the top of the casing and into the slurry catch box from which slurry can be pumped using one or more slurry pumps to a processing plant for further classification and water separation with clarified or filtered water recycled back to a fluid reservoir, immediately reused at the processing platform or to be stockpiled, gravel that is classified from slurry as large, not captured in traps and separated out as gangue may be crushed by a gravel crushing machine to a uniform small size and again run through the classification processor for gravity concentrator separation of valuable minerals and elements with rejected small gravel sands collected for reinsertion into the subterranean cavity as fill, thereby completing the mining process at the site. A high hydrostatic fluid level will be monitored and adjusted automatically by a sensor, either mechanically or electronically, as needed, being maintained by a conduit and high-volume low-pressure water pump with a water reservoir source to provide for immediate insertion of fluid into the annulus' top end, with the conduit communicating for fluid emplacement through a nozzle connected to a collar secured to the top end of the casing, which also attaches the slurry catch box to the casing, to maintain effective eductor function and hydrostatic stability of the subterranean cavity.
10) A method for mining minerals, gems and metals from a target deposit comprising the steps of recovering a sump concentrate periodically using the core barrel with or without extending additional casing members, whereby a sump will be maintained on the floor of the subterranean excavated cavity during pulsed jetting subterranean excavation to trap large heavy elemental nuggets and gems and other heavy debris for recovery with a sonic core barrel, with interruption of the pulsed jet mining process, removing the sonic rod string and jet pulsed mining apparatus from the borehole, then inserting the sonic core barrel or similar barrel device on supporting sonic rods into the borehole to the sump member, coring the sump contents with or without over-coring the sump, preferably deepening the extracted sump member to seal unconsolidated concentrates within the core barrel with a cap of non-concentrate, preferably extending the depth of the sump and then removing the core-barrel and its heavy and large slurry contents from the subsurface mining site and sump member to the surface for processing.
11) A method for mining minerals, gems and metals from a target deposit comprising the steps of recovering slurry from a deeply extended deposit where extending the casing string further into the mining cavity and around the sonic jetting rod string with added sonically pulsing jetting eductor couplings to the sonic rod string is employed to facilitate improved dense slurry recovery, with periodically adding additional casing members to a casing string as needed to position the pulsed assembly deeper into a deepening mining cavity where dense slurry may gravitate and collect, with the sonic casings bottom-end extending below the top of the mining cavity's ceiling, such that a more efficient and denser slurry extraction is accomplished using a single borehole method, providing for better use of more pulsed jetting eductor couplings with adding additional sonic rods and additional casing members to function with a downwardly extended annulus into a sonically pulsed jetted excavation cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.