Underground in situ leaching of ore

An underground in situ leaching process for the recovery of uranium values from a uranium resource body comprising:

• establishing a drift close to the resource body in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the subsurface water and hydrostatic pressure;
• drilling long holes from the drift into the resource body and perforating the long holes, wherein the drilling and perforating are done in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the subsurface water and hydrostatic pressure;
• injecting a recovery solution into the resource body through some of the long holes;
• recovering the recovery solution from the resource body through long holes which are not being used as injection long holes;
• and
• conducting the injection and recovery of the recovery solution in such a manner as to maintain the hydrostatic pressure of the outer periphery of the resource body and to control the hydrostatic pressure of that portion of the resource body being leached in order to maximize the exposure of the resource body to the recovery solution thereby maximizing the recovery of the uranium from the uranium resource body.

An underground in situ leaching process for the recovery of mineral values which are capable of being weakly soluble in aqueous solutions from deposits of such minerals which are located within permeable sedimentary or igneous rocks which are associated with geochemical interfaces or stratiform mineral accumulations and wherein such deposits are located below a water table comprising:

• establishing through the use of one or more shafts a drift close to the mineral resource body in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the subsurface water and hydrostatic pressure;
• drilling long holes from the drift into the mineral resource body, inserting pipes into the long holes, cementing the pipes to a wall of the drift, perforating the pipes and long holes, and attaching a control valve to the drift end of the long hole pipes, wherein the drilling, perforating, inserting of the pipes and attaching of the control valves are done in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the subsurface water and hydrostatic pressure;
• injecting a recovery solution into the mineral resource body through some of the long holes;
• recovering the recovery solution from the resource body through long holes which are not being used as injection long holes;
• and
• conducting the injection and recovery of the recovery solution in such a manner as to maintain the hydrostatic pressure of the outer periphery of the mineral resource body and to control the hydrostatic pressure of that portion of the resource body being leached in order to maximize the exposure of the resource body to the recovery solution thereby maximizing the recovery of the mineral values from the mineral resource body.

An underground in situ leaching process for the recovery of uranium values from a uranium resource body comprising:

• establishing through the use of one or more shafts a drift close to the uranium resource body in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the subsurface water and hydrostatic pressure;
• drilling long holes from the drift into the uranium resource body, inserting pipes into the long holes, cementing the pipes to a wall of the drift, perforating the pipes and long holes and attaching a control valve to the drift end of each of the long hole pipes, wherein the drilling, perforating, inserting the pipes and attaching of the control valves are done in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the subsurface water and hydrostatic pressure;
• injecting an oxidizing agent into the uranium resource body through some of the long holes;
• injecting a uranium leaching solution into the uranium resource body through the same long holes into which the oxidizing solution was injected;
• recovering the oxidizing agent and uranium leaching solution from the resource body through long holes which are not being used as injection long holes;
• and
• conducting the injection and recovery of the oxidizing agent and uranium leaching solution in such a manner as to minimize any effect on the hydrostatic pressure of the outer periphery resource body and to control the hydrostatic pressure within that portion of the resource body being leached in order to maintain the water saturation of the resource body and to maximize the exposure of the resource body to the oxidizing and acid leaching solutions thereby maximizing the recovery of the uranium from the resource body.