September Technical Presentation
September Technical Presentation
Exploration, Development and Mining of Roll-front Uranium Deposits
by In-situ Recovery (isr)
Cal VanHolland and Sam Talbott
Ur-Energy USA
The presentation will offer an overview of sedimentary uranium geology from exploration through the restoration stages of In-situ Recovery (ISR) mining, focusing on roll-front type uranium deposits.
The discussion will begin with a description of the general characteristics of roll-front deposits, including aqueous geochemistry, required geologic conditions, deposit formation, deposit geometry and mineralogy. General exploration methodologies from grass-roots through discovery will be reviewed, including drilling and geophysical logging techniques and evaluation. Development activities required to bring a deposit from the discovery phase into the mining stage will be summarized. This will include a brief summation of permitting, economic and geological requirements, ore deposit delineation drilling, chemical disequilibrium and PFN logging, and resource estimation. Presentation of the In-situ recovery (ISR) technique of mining uranium deposits will incorporate mining geochemistry, production well patterns, production monitoring, and processing to yellowcake.
Finally, post-production restoration and reclamation methods will be summarized with reference to restoration geochemistry and regulatory requirements.