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Ablation Technologies, LLC |
| About |
| The Technology |
| Applications |
| · Uranium ISR |
| · Uranium Conventional |
| · Oil Sand Remediation |
| Contact |
Ablation can be an effective alternative to ISR. In this application, the ablation system will be coupled to a borehole mining rig, which drills into the formation and uses high pressure (1,800 - 3,600 psi) water to scour the uranium bearing ore from the host rock. As a technology, borehole mining was successfully tested by the US Bureau of Mines in the 1970s on sandstone hosted uranium deposits. (SME Mining and Engineering Handbook, Chapter 22.4) The advantage of borehole mining is the process of mining puts the ore into a water-based slurry that feeds, with little preparation, into a surface located ablation system. This main advantages of this approach to mining deposits that would be targeted by ISR result from the fact that this approach is used only water and is used by the borehole mining and ablation systems. Ablation is a water only
| Difference from ISR | Advantage |
| Both the borehole mining system and the ablation system use water only rather than reagents | No mobilization of uranium or secondary metals No chemical impact to the water table Without the risk of mobilization, deposits located above the water table can be developed |
| The ore is extracted from the formation from surface processing by the ablation circuit - through formation fluid migration is not used to dissolve the uranium from the formation | Can be used to develop shallow deposits and deposits in impermeable formations Much higher recovery rates (>95%) much more quickly than ISR Can be used to economically recover uranium from old ISR fields, remediating the formation at the same time |
| Uses independent rather than interconnected wells |
Much smaller surface footprint than conventional ISR operations Less complicated and expensive setup Reduces the pre-development studies required, as formation permeability and geochemistry are not factors that affect mining ore uranium recovery |
The process flow diagram below shows the configuration of a typical borehole mining ablation system configuration.
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781 North Foster Road, Casper, Wyoming 82601 Phone (307) 234-5400 Fax (307) 234-5415 |