E - Fixed Constructions – 21 – C
Patent
E - Fixed Constructions
21
C
255/11, 166/30
E21C 37/12 (2006.01) E21C 45/00 (2006.01)
Patent
CA 1063930
ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Method and apparatus for subterranean slurry drilling and mining of granular ore, such as phosphates, with a combined drilling and mining apparatus. The apparatus includes a tool string having a drilling head and mining head that are selectively interchangeable on its upper end for drilling into one or more ore strata to be mined and thereafter to remo? ore from the strata as a slurry. The drill string includes a plurality of inner and outer pipe sections connected to a mining nozzle section, to an eductor pump section, and to a drill bit at its lower end. A drilling/mining liquid is directed through the tool string during both the drilling and mining modes of operation. During drilling, liquid is directed through a foot valve into the rotating bit to wash cuttings to the surface externally of the tool. During mining, the tool string is rotated, the foot valve is closed, and a mining nozzle is opened thereby causing liquid jetting form the mining nozzle to reduce the ore to a slurry. The slurry is pumped to the surface by liquid passing upwardly through the eductor pump and through the inner conduit. Without removing the apparatus from the hole, a hydraulic control system is actuated by hydraulic pressure equal to or less than system pressure for shifting the mining nozzle, the eductor nozzle, and the drill bit foot valve between a drilling mode and a mining mode thus enabling several different ore bearing strata to be mined. In a modified from of the invention a plurality of vertically spaced mining nozzles are provided and each -1a- nozzle is aligned with a different ore strata. A hydraulic control system is provided for controlling the hydraulic components between their drilling and mining modes, and for opening and closing the mining nozzle independently of each other. The control system is responsive to pressure equal to or less than the system pressure. -1b-
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