The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 06, 1987
Filed:
Nov. 21, 1984
ISL Ventures, Inc., San Francisco, CA (US);
Abstract
A method of in-situ leaching is disclosed in which the ore body is incapsulated by impermeable barriers. A grid of injection and production wells are drilled into the ore body. Horizontal barriers are formed at the top and bottom of the ore body by creating an overlapping pattern of horizontally-oriented fractures filled with polymer, above and below the ore body, radiating from each of the injection and production wells. A ring of boundary wells may also be drilled surrounding the ore body. The strata around each boundary well is fractured and a polymer is then injected to form a vertical barrier around the periphery of the ore body. The lixiviant is then introduced to extract the desired mineral values. In addition, water may be injected under pressure into guard wells between the ore body and the vertical and/or horizontal barrier wells to further reduce any migration of lixiviant into neighboring formations.