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Casual Articles - The Water Factor in Uranium Mining
Web Site Design Tips >StockInterview: Once you’ve established the saturation and pressure, what’s next on your checklist?What can my company do with a website?1. To save money for your company Website is the cheapest salesman, information centre, or advertising company, for it is working 24 hours, posting unlimited information, advertising for your company tirelessly all the time!2. To earn money for your company No matter where your customers are, they can learn of your company's new development soon with no charges from you and without being limited by the long distance, your potential customer will know you through your website and probably place orders with you online.3. To improve your company's competitive ability4. To provide much more convenience for your business5. To have a pubic image in internetTwo ways to have a website Basically there are two ways to have a website: 1, to have your website designed by a professional site design company; 2, to have a free website just by accepting a free site provider's service. We call these two types of websites as custom website and free website, merits and shortcomings of each are listed below for your reference.Merits of custom website design Glenn Catchpole: Assuming the mineralization is not tied up in clay streaks in the sandstone unit, then you want to know the permeability of the aquifer. How readily can you move water through the formation? To do that, you have to do a pump test, or aquifer test to calculate the value of the permeability of that aquifer. The higher the permeability, the more helpful it’s going to be in your mining process. You have to be able to move the solution through the formation in order to leach uranium off the sandstone grains. The more permeable the formation, the more fluid you can move through it; the more effective you can be in extracting uranium. StockInterview: How do you determine your rate of production? Glenn Catchpole: Two things determine your ISR mining production rate. That’s the concentration of the uranium in the fluid coming out of your recovery wells and the flow rate. There’s an equation you can use to determine the rate of production in pounds. You multiply your flow rate by your concentration, also known as head grade. StockInterview: Is this how companies conclude how many pounds they will annually produce on their ISR project? Glenn Catchpole: Generally, you have a production rate you are trying to achieve. For example, if I want to produce on American Demographics Water plays an integral role for In Situ Recovery (ISR) uranium mining. If the water is not in the right place, ISR mining can not take place. A company’s ‘pounds in the ground’ are nearly worthless or may have to be extracted through other means.Considering the vastness of the topic of American demographics, it is convenient to limit discussions on the subject to the demographic field of American population. American demographics give in-depth estimates of all the major trends of the nation, as well as the regions of the country.These demographic reports, as already mentioned, cover all the statistical data of the nation’s economy, social customs, religion, ethnicity, race, market, consumption modes, food habits, clothing, homes, population, mortality and fertility rates, and other such records. These reports are based on a given time period. According to the recent demographic report, the population of the United States is 288,368,698, and this report is based on the estimation of the Census Bureau.This report covers the period through July 2002. American demographics, when it provides such data, also help us to acquire other key information and the status of various developments. One can extract other data by simply implementing various statistical tools. For example, from the above population report of the United States, one can draw the general rate of increase unti One of the purposes of the Advanced ISR series is to finally bury the misleading ‘Pounds in the Ground’ mantra. Some uranium companies have given the wrong impression about their resource estimates by championing the number of their historical pounds. Some of those pounds might never be mined or even permitted for mining. Having NI 43-101 compliant resources does not necessarily confirm whether companies have economic deposits in which the extraction process can take place. Water could be the issue. Our interview with Glenn Catchpole of Uranerz Energy explains what investors should know about water’s role in ISR uranium mining. Companies with an ISR project may disappoint shareholders because of the water location, or lack of water, in relation to the ore body. Many analysts have assigned values to an ore body without taking water into consideration. We hope this interview will help shed new light on these valuations. StockInterview: Let’s start with the basics. What is the first requirement for an In Situ Recovery uranium mine? Glenn Catchpole: The uranium ore body itself must or should be in a confined aquifer. What you are looking for is that the uranium-mineralized sandstone is in this aquifer. If there’s no water in the formation and it’s dry, then you can’t solution mine (also known as ISR). StockInterview: What do you mean by a confined aquifer? Glenn Catchpole: A confined aquifer is one that is confined between two impermeable geologic strata. In Wyoming, typically they would be either mud, stone, shale or some type of clay which forms an impermeable barrier above and below the sandstone hosting the uranium. Over time, water has moved down the sandstone strata. As it moves, the water comes under pressure and becomes confined. StockInterview: Why is this important? Glenn Catchpole: If you complete a water well in a sandstone strata that is under pressure and encase it in cement, the water will actually rise in that casing to some level based on the pressure in the aquifer. In some cases, there could be enough pressure or ‘head,’ where the well will actually flow onto the surface on its own. You want the water under pressure because the more pressure in the formation, or in the sandstone unit, then the more oxygen you can put in the solution. In the United States, you either add CO2 or sodium bicarbonate plus an oxidant, such as oxygen, to the groundwater. Then you re-inject the solution into the sandstone host formation to dissolve the uranium off the sandstone. The more oxygen you can put into the solution, the more effectively you can dissolve or oxidize the uranium. StockInterview: How do you find out how much pressure you have in the aquifer? Glenn Catchpole: Let’s assume you’ve got good uranium values from the results of your exploration program, and that you may have an economic ore body using the ISR method. You then need to confirm that the ore body is in an aquifer or that the sandstone is saturated with water. To do that, you would install hydrologic testing wells. Assuming there is water in those wells, you would then do a pump test to determine the hydrologic properties of this aquifer. StockInterview: How do you know if your properties have mineralized sandstone formations which are saturated with water? Glenn Catchpole: There are deposits in Wyoming that are good in terms of grade, but they are completely above the water table. They are not saturated. In our case, we focused our acquisition activities in the Powder River Basin, which we know from our previous work. Most of those sands that are hosting uranium are indeed saturated with water. There are some that are not. From our experience we pretty much know those deposits that may be sitting above the water table. In other words, they are not saturated with water. If uranium went to $500/pound, maybe some day you could put a conventional mine on them. StockInterview: What about those in the exploration stage? Glenn Catchpole: If you were working in a new area doing raw exploration, and you did come across good mineralization that looked like you had an ore body there, you might not know for sure about the hydrology and what the water levels are like. You could get into a situation where either the sandstone is dry, or it is only partially filled with water. Or it’s filled with water, but it doesn’t have much head or pressure on it. You’ve got to do some test work and nail that down. StockInterview: Is there any way of detecting the problem in advance, before you discover you’ve got an inadequately saturated formation? Glenn Catchpole: When you are drilling an exploration hole, the driller knows when he encounters any water at all. If he doesn’t get any water, you know right away, you’ve got a problem very early on. When the driller starts out, he can start drilling with air. If he encounters water in his drilling, then he’s going to switch over to drilling mud to carry the cuttings. As he’s drilling a hole, he is creating cuttings. He has to have a mud slurry in order to carry those cuttings out of the hole. An experienced driller will have a good feel for how much water he’s encountered. These drillers have worked all over Wyoming; they’ve got some feel for the local geology and what the water situation might be. StockInterview: Once you’ve established the saturation and pressure, what’s next on your checklist? Glenn Catchpole: Assuming the mineralization is not tied up in clay streaks in the sandstone unit, then you want to know the permeability of the aquifer. How readily can you move water through the formation? To do that, you have to do a pump test, or aquifer test to calculate the value of the permeability of that aquifer. The higher the permeability, the more helpful it’s going to be in your mining process. You have to be able to move the solution through the formation in order to leach uranium off the sandstone grains. The more permeable the formation, the more fluid you can move through it; the more effective you can be in extracting uranium. StockInterview: How do you determine your rate of production? Glenn Catchpole: Two things determine your ISR mining production rate. That’s the concentration of the uranium in the fluid coming out of your recovery wells and the flow rate. There’s an equation you can use to determine the rate of production in pounds. You multiply your flow rate by your concentration, also known as head grade. StockInterview: Is this how companies conclude how many pounds they will annually produce on their ISR project? Glenn Catchpole: Generally, you have a production rate you are trying to achieve. For example, if I want to produce one Are You Ready For A New Career? you are looking for is that the uranium-mineralized sandstone is in this aquifer. If there’s no water in the formation and it’s dry, then you can’t solution mine (also known as ISR).Is your current or most recent job truly what you want to do?Do you dread the prospect of coming into work every day? Do you look back on your work day as you travel home and cannot seem to find a fulfilling moment? If you answered yes, read on.You could be unhappy with your supervisor; you may not like the politics or corporate culture; or you may not like the industry you are in. You may also feel that you are underpaid, underutilized, undervalued or unappreciated. You may not have sufficient opportunities for career advancement; or perhaps you are feeling overworked. These are all common experiences among employees.What are your choices?If you love what you do, if you get motivated and excited in a particular field of interest, if you can put your arms around a career with enthusiasm and gusto, then you have found your passion and you will experience fulfillment and joy daily.You will look forward to work each day. On your drive home, you will find yourself looking back on your day and smiling.Give yourself the opportunity to create something better for yourself. Explore your options fully. StockInterview: What do you mean by a confined aquifer? Glenn Catchpole: A confined aquifer is one that is confined between two impermeable geologic strata. In Wyoming, typically they would be either mud, stone, shale or some type of clay which forms an impermeable barrier above and below the sandstone hosting the uranium. Over time, water has moved down the sandstone strata. As it moves, the water comes under pressure and becomes confined. StockInterview: Why is this important? Glenn Catchpole: If you complete a water well in a sandstone strata that is under pressure and encase it in cement, the water will actually rise in that casing to some level based on the pressure in the aquifer. In some cases, there could be enough pressure or ‘head,’ where the well will actually flow onto the surface on its own. You want the water under pressure because the more pressure in the formation, or in the sandstone unit, then the more oxygen you can put in the solution. In the United States, you either add CO2 or sodium bicarbonate plus an oxidant, such as oxygen, to the groundwater. Then you re-inject the solution into the sandstone host formation to dissolve the uranium off the sandstone. The more oxygen you can put into the solution, the more effectively you can dissolve or oxidize the uranium. StockInterview: How do you find out how much pressure you have in the aquifer? Glenn Catchpole: Let’s assume you’ve got good uranium values from the results of your exploration program, and that you may have an economic ore body using the ISR method. You then need to confirm that the ore body is in an aquifer or that the sandstone is saturated with water. To do that, you would install hydrologic testing wells. Assuming there is water in those wells, you would then do a pump test to determine the hydrologic properties of this aquifer. StockInterview: How do you know if your properties have mineralized sandstone formations which are saturated with water? Glenn Catchpole: There are deposits in Wyoming that are good in terms of grade, but they are completely above the water table. They are not saturated. In our case, we focused our acquisition activities in the Powder River Basin, which we know from our previous work. Most of those sands that are hosting uranium are indeed saturated with water. There are some that are not. From our experience we pretty much know those deposits that may be sitting above the water table. In other words, they are not saturated with water. If uranium went to $500/pound, maybe some day you could put a conventional mine on them. StockInterview: What about those in the exploration stage? Glenn Catchpole: If you were working in a new area doing raw exploration, and you did come across good mineralization that looked like you had an ore body there, you might not know for sure about the hydrology and what the water levels are like. You could get into a situation where either the sandstone is dry, or it is only partially filled with water. Or it’s filled with water, but it doesn’t have much head or pressure on it. You’ve got to do some test work and nail that down. StockInterview: Is there any way of detecting the problem in advance, before you discover you’ve got an inadequately saturated formation? Glenn Catchpole: When you are drilling an exploration hole, the driller knows when he encounters any water at all. If he doesn’t get any water, you know right away, you’ve got a problem very early on. When the driller starts out, he can start drilling with air. If he encounters water in his drilling, then he’s going to switch over to drilling mud to carry the cuttings. As he’s drilling a hole, he is creating cuttings. He has to have a mud slurry in order to carry those cuttings out of the hole. An experienced driller will have a good feel for how much water he’s encountered. These drillers have worked all over Wyoming; they’ve got some feel for the local geology and what the water situation might be. StockInterview: Once you’ve established the saturation and pressure, what’s next on your checklist? Glenn Catchpole: Assuming the mineralization is not tied up in clay streaks in the sandstone unit, then you want to know the permeability of the aquifer. How readily can you move water through the formation? To do that, you have to do a pump test, or aquifer test to calculate the value of the permeability of that aquifer. The higher the permeability, the more helpful it’s going to be in your mining process. You have to be able to move the solution through the formation in order to leach uranium off the sandstone grains. The more permeable the formation, the more fluid you can move through it; the more effective you can be in extracting uranium. StockInterview: How do you determine your rate of production? Glenn Catchpole: Two things determine your ISR mining production rate. That’s the concentration of the uranium in the fluid coming out of your recovery wells and the flow rate. There’s an equation you can use to determine the rate of production in pounds. You multiply your flow rate by your concentration, also known as head grade. StockInterview: Is this how companies conclude how many pounds they will annually produce on their ISR project? Glenn Catchpole: Generally, you have a production rate you are trying to achieve. For example, if I want to produce on Information as a Competitive Advantage - Part 7, Cost Reduction e oxygen you can put into the solution, the more effectively you can dissolve or oxidize the uranium.A cost cutting strategy is very popular in the business world, especially during recession or falling revenue periods. The Business which achieves to maintain the ‘cost leader’ position, has a major competitive advantage. The ability to sustain a low cost position, is a precondition for long term development in any highly competitive environment. To achieve that, a business has to develop core competencies in lean production, which cannot easily be copied by Competition.The use of financial and managerial accounting systems for production cost measurement and control, is a common practise.Profitability monitoring is also enabled by accounting systems. The use of profitability ratios at the organizational level, at a profit-center level, or at the product level, is a common practice which is based on the effective recording and structured analysis of business information. Production cost analysis contributes to the product pricing strategy and profitability estimation. Use of cost accounting techniques like activity based costing, requires monitoring the following facts:Unit rate for each cost driver which is re StockInterview: How do you find out how much pressure you have in the aquifer? Glenn Catchpole: Let’s assume you’ve got good uranium values from the results of your exploration program, and that you may have an economic ore body using the ISR method. You then need to confirm that the ore body is in an aquifer or that the sandstone is saturated with water. To do that, you would install hydrologic testing wells. Assuming there is water in those wells, you would then do a pump test to determine the hydrologic properties of this aquifer. StockInterview: How do you know if your properties have mineralized sandstone formations which are saturated with water? Glenn Catchpole: There are deposits in Wyoming that are good in terms of grade, but they are completely above the water table. They are not saturated. In our case, we focused our acquisition activities in the Powder River Basin, which we know from our previous work. Most of those sands that are hosting uranium are indeed saturated with water. There are some that are not. From our experience we pretty much know those deposits that may be sitting above the water table. In other words, they are not saturated with water. If uranium went to $500/pound, maybe some day you could put a conventional mine on them. StockInterview: What about those in the exploration stage? Glenn Catchpole: If you were working in a new area doing raw exploration, and you did come across good mineralization that looked like you had an ore body there, you might not know for sure about the hydrology and what the water levels are like. You could get into a situation where either the sandstone is dry, or it is only partially filled with water. Or it’s filled with water, but it doesn’t have much head or pressure on it. You’ve got to do some test work and nail that down. StockInterview: Is there any way of detecting the problem in advance, before you discover you’ve got an inadequately saturated formation? Glenn Catchpole: When you are drilling an exploration hole, the driller knows when he encounters any water at all. If he doesn’t get any water, you know right away, you’ve got a problem very early on. When the driller starts out, he can start drilling with air. If he encounters water in his drilling, then he’s going to switch over to drilling mud to carry the cuttings. As he’s drilling a hole, he is creating cuttings. He has to have a mud slurry in order to carry those cuttings out of the hole. An experienced driller will have a good feel for how much water he’s encountered. These drillers have worked all over Wyoming; they’ve got some feel for the local geology and what the water situation might be. StockInterview: Once you’ve established the saturation and pressure, what’s next on your checklist? Glenn Catchpole: Assuming the mineralization is not tied up in clay streaks in the sandstone unit, then you want to know the permeability of the aquifer. How readily can you move water through the formation? To do that, you have to do a pump test, or aquifer test to calculate the value of the permeability of that aquifer. The higher the permeability, the more helpful it’s going to be in your mining process. You have to be able to move the solution through the formation in order to leach uranium off the sandstone grains. The more permeable the formation, the more fluid you can move through it; the more effective you can be in extracting uranium. StockInterview: How do you determine your rate of production? Glenn Catchpole: Two things determine your ISR mining production rate. That’s the concentration of the uranium in the fluid coming out of your recovery wells and the flow rate. There’s an equation you can use to determine the rate of production in pounds. You multiply your flow rate by your concentration, also known as head grade. StockInterview: Is this how companies conclude how many pounds they will annually produce on their ISR project? Glenn Catchpole: Generally, you have a production rate you are trying to achieve. For example, if I want to produce on Growing Your Site With Content! kInterview: What about those in the exploration stage?I think alot of people still miss out why you have a website. Depending on what your site is about usually depends on how you tackle the subject of your site. If you are reading this article you are probably wanting to or already have aimed your site in the direction of commerce. Which simply means that you want to create and generate a revenue off it, probably through advertising. What you may be missing is even though you want a revenue site, you may not know how to achieve it so that visitors keep coming back. Well isn't that the most important part of a commerce creating website. If visitors don't come back then your revenue is probably sitting at $0.59 if you are lucky. For others it is $0.00.So what keeps people coming back to your site day after day. Alot of companies and sites forget that it is your content. After the initial click to visit your website and a front page inspection, it is truly your content that I am after. Trust me on this one. If the same information I viewed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday is still there on Thursday, then your site is probably of no interest to me. Depending on how good your content is and Glenn Catchpole: If you were working in a new area doing raw exploration, and you did come across good mineralization that looked like you had an ore body there, you might not know for sure about the hydrology and what the water levels are like. You could get into a situation where either the sandstone is dry, or it is only partially filled with water. Or it’s filled with water, but it doesn’t have much head or pressure on it. You’ve got to do some test work and nail that down. StockInterview: Is there any way of detecting the problem in advance, before you discover you’ve got an inadequately saturated formation? Glenn Catchpole: When you are drilling an exploration hole, the driller knows when he encounters any water at all. If he doesn’t get any water, you know right away, you’ve got a problem very early on. When the driller starts out, he can start drilling with air. If he encounters water in his drilling, then he’s going to switch over to drilling mud to carry the cuttings. As he’s drilling a hole, he is creating cuttings. He has to have a mud slurry in order to carry those cuttings out of the hole. An experienced driller will have a good feel for how much water he’s encountered. These drillers have worked all over Wyoming; they’ve got some feel for the local geology and what the water situation might be. StockInterview: Once you’ve established the saturation and pressure, what’s next on your checklist? Glenn Catchpole: Assuming the mineralization is not tied up in clay streaks in the sandstone unit, then you want to know the permeability of the aquifer. How readily can you move water through the formation? To do that, you have to do a pump test, or aquifer test to calculate the value of the permeability of that aquifer. The higher the permeability, the more helpful it’s going to be in your mining process. You have to be able to move the solution through the formation in order to leach uranium off the sandstone grains. The more permeable the formation, the more fluid you can move through it; the more effective you can be in extracting uranium. StockInterview: How do you determine your rate of production? Glenn Catchpole: Two things determine your ISR mining production rate. That’s the concentration of the uranium in the fluid coming out of your recovery wells and the flow rate. There’s an equation you can use to determine the rate of production in pounds. You multiply your flow rate by your concentration, also known as head grade. StockInterview: Is this how companies conclude how many pounds they will annually produce on their ISR project? Glenn Catchpole: Generally, you have a production rate you are trying to achieve. For example, if I want to produce on Three Perspectives on Lean >StockInterview: Once you’ve established the saturation and pressure, what’s next on your checklist?There are at least three different perspectives on Lean. The first was Shigeo Shingo’s industrial engineering perspective.There are currently ongoing debates about Shingo’s influence on the Toyota system. The facts are that he taught Industrial Engineering courses at Toyota for over 25 years from 1955 onwards. He taught the people who implemented Lean the engineering principles behind it. He saw Lean in terms of Non-Stock Production – producing with minimal inventory. There is a grain of truth in Dan Jones’ comment above, in that Toyota have never been too interested in theory, only practice.Shingo was a theorist as well as an engineer, and his theory was articulated as far back as 1946. The theory was that manufacturing is a network of process (product flow) and operations and that non-stock production meant focusing on flow not individual operational efficiency. He derived this from Henry Ford’s dictum that the longer anything is in the factory, the more it costs, at exactly the time when Sloan and GM were doing the direct opposite. How much Toyota were influenced by this theory, or how far Shingo’s theory is just an explan Glenn Catchpole: Assuming the mineralization is not tied up in clay streaks in the sandstone unit, then you want to know the permeability of the aquifer. How readily can you move water through the formation? To do that, you have to do a pump test, or aquifer test to calculate the value of the permeability of that aquifer. The higher the permeability, the more helpful it’s going to be in your mining process. You have to be able to move the solution through the formation in order to leach uranium off the sandstone grains. The more permeable the formation, the more fluid you can move through it; the more effective you can be in extracting uranium. StockInterview: How do you determine your rate of production? Glenn Catchpole: Two things determine your ISR mining production rate. That’s the concentration of the uranium in the fluid coming out of your recovery wells and the flow rate. There’s an equation you can use to determine the rate of production in pounds. You multiply your flow rate by your concentration, also known as head grade. StockInterview: Is this how companies conclude how many pounds they will annually produce on their ISR project? Glenn Catchpole: Generally, you have a production rate you are trying to achieve. For example, if I want to produce one million pounds per year, and my head grade is 80 milligrams per liter (a typical number used for U.S. projects) and my hydrologist tells me I’ve going to recover 10 gallons per minute, I will need 400 recovery wells. Based upon these hypothetical calculations, I will need 4,000 gallons per minute, or 400 recovery wells each recovering 10 gallons/minute, to produce one million pounds. As a side comment, when people say ‘I’m going to have a solution mine that produces three million pounds per year,’ it turns out to be a lot of wells. Your major cost in a solution mining operation, once you’ve got the plant built, is putting in your wells. (Editor’s Note: Discussing costs to put in wells with others in the uranium mining sector, we found a range of $20 to $30/foot for each well.) Conclusion In a separate information sheet, Glenn Catchpole provided us with a hypothetical approximation of an ISR wellfield in Wyoming. He wrote, “Production at an ISR uranium mine is directly related to the flow rate (FR) coming from the recovery wells and the concentration of the uranium or head grade (HG) in the recovery solution.” In this theoretical calculation, Mr. Catchpole assumed a head grade of 65 milligrams per liter, a flow rate of 10 gallons per minute for each recovery well, and an ore body’s average depth below surface of 500 feet. In order to produce one million pounds U3O8, this would require 350 production wells, 420 injection wells and 20 monitor wells. Using these assumptions, the theoretical well field would cost approximately $12 million to construct. Amortized over two years for the life of the well field, the cost for the well field construction – using annual production figures of one million pounds – would be about $6/pound U3O8. By lowering cost/foot for each well, a company could reduce their construction cost to about $4/pound U3O8. Mr. Catchpole cautioned these are simplistic and very rough approximations of an ISR wellfield cost in Wyoming. He also wrote, “These are presented for illustrative purposes only and the numbers generated should not be used in financial calculations or project evaluations.” COPYRIGHT© 2007 by StockInterview, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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