| abstract |
Mineral values, particularly uranium, are recovered "in situ" from a subsurface earth formation by completing at least one well in the mineralized formation adjacent either the top or the bottom of the mineralized formation, completing at least one second well in the mineralized formation adjacent the opposite of the top and the bottom of the mineralized formation, forming a horizontally-oriented fracture in the mineralized formation adjacent at least one of the top and the bottom of the mineralized formation, each of which fractures is in open communication with that well which has been completed at a corresponding vertical level, injecting a leach solution, adapted to solvate the mineral values, into the first or the second well, which thus becomes an injection well, and thence into that fracture which is in communication with the injection well and producing the leach solution, containing solvated mineral values, from the other of the first and second wells, which thus becomes the production well, whereby the leach solution flows from the injection well generally horizontally through the fracture in communication with the injection well, thence generally vertically through the mineralized formation and thence generally horizontally to the production well. |