Air lifting sand

Abstract

An apparatus and method for extracting sand from an underground sandstone formation. The apparatus comprising: a conduit having an upper end and a lower end to engage a sandstone formation, a gas injection line to inject gas at an injection point, wherein the gas injected at the injection point generates a low pressure region at the lower end to draw a sand slurry from the sandstone formation, and a collection port proximate to the upper end of the conduit wherein the sand slurry in the conduit is to be removed. The method comprising: lowering a pipe and air injection line into a sandstone formation, injecting air into the pipe to create a low pressure region at a lower end of the pipe to draw a sand slurry from the formation, and collecting the sand slurry at a collection port.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.