Development of Environmentally Attractive Leachants. Volume 1. A Minitest for In situ Uranium Leaching

摘要

A minitest, consisting of a central injection production well surrounded by at least two observation wells designed to detect the arrival of injected fluid, leached minerals, and nonideal flow, is described in the report. The goals of the test are to determine the susceptability of the host formation for uranium leaching, to establish important kinetic parameters so that the results of the minitest can be used to correctly scale the process and to identify those factors that may render site restoration difficult. This Bureau of Mines report considers nonidealities such as reservoir permeability heterogeneities, nonuniform mineral distribution, and minerals other than uranium that may react with the leach solution. To circumvent these difficulties, methods of interpretation have been proposed and tested by analysis of realistic data generated by a computer simulator.