The key to in situ leach (ISL) mining is not necessarily its uranium pounds-in-the-ground. Key factors include permeability of the uranium orebody, size of the area covered by a deposit and the average grade of the ore body. We talked with leading geological and hydrology experts to help you better understand ISL mining to avoid getting misled.

Over the past two years, the common myth circulated among investors has been “pounds in the ground.” How many pounds of U3O8 does a company have in the ground? The more pounds a company claims, and more importantly gets institutions and investors to believe, the higher its market capitalization has run. Bigger is always better in most cases, but recovering uranium through an ISL operation, like any other mining operation, has its quirks.

During the early stage of this uranium bull market, pounds-in-the-ground was an important yardstick. But just as one can have a million-ounce gold deposit, with a complexity of metallurgical problems that prohibit a robust economic recovery or offer a paltry grade of gold in the ore, investors may discover the same problems in properly evaluating a company’s uranium claims. Instead of asking a company’s investor relations department how many pounds of uranium they have in the ground, find out how much uranium pounds they can actually recover and produce, and how much it will cost them to mine their property. Ask instead these questions:

· How permeable are the ore bodies you plan to mine? · What is your average grade? · Over what area does your rollfront extend? · What is the depth of your ore body?

By the time you have finished reading this feature, you should have a better grasp on the economics of ISL mining. You should be better equipped to make a more intelligent decision about your favorite company. First, let’s examine the nature of a uranium mineralized rollfront. Understanding the rollfront will give you the key tools required to accurately evaluate the prospects of any ISL uranium development company.

THE “ROLL FRONT” IS YOUR FRIEND

In the first article, we interviewed Charles Don Show, who helped pioneer ISL uranium mining as an economic means to extract lower grade ore from underground mining operations. In Snow’s 1978 article entitled, “Gas Hills Uranium District, Wyoming – A Review of History and Production,” published in the Wyoming Geological Association Guidebook, he wrote about the development of the “roll front” theory. He wrote about discussions the project geologists were having in the summer of 1955 about Utah Construction Company’s recently acquired option on the Lucky Mc uranium properties in Wyoming’s Gas Hill District:

“Offset drilling Project 4 intersected one major mineralized zone with a grade thickness product over 10 percent U3O8. An offset of this and one other mineralized hole about 2500 feet away were barren. Many discussions of why the ore was in these ‘isolated’ pods were carried on late into the night… It was during the period of development of the reserves that members of the staff started referring to different layers and separated pods as areas of mineralization where chemical changes had caused deposition and soon the word ‘chemical front’ was in common usage.”

Page 1 of 5 :: First | Last :: Prev | 1 2 3 4 5 | Next