Application of Jet Mining

Natural resource mining applications for trapped resources often too deep for conventional open pit or below the water table and uneconomic because of dewatering costs are common reasons to utilize jet mining for the recovery of uranium, mineral sands, diamonds, tin, gold, coal, etc….  In many cases it is one or a combination of a geotechnical, geological or environmental issue that leads to the use of jet mining.

The application of Jet Mining can be used in the oil and gas sector to under ream wells to create large cavities to create enhanced production and recovery from wells by increasing the pore space area.  In some cases the need to frac could be reduced or even eliminated.  Wells could remain open hole or the use of casing with slotted lines with sand or gravel pack could easily be deployed.  The introduction of abrasives could be used for slot cutting in casing or chemical additives could be deployed with pressure to clean up existing wells with production issues to further enhance production and recoveries of trapped hydrocarbons.

Similar to the oil and gas sector, Jet Mining can be used in the water resource industry to increase the bore hole diameter to increase pore space connected to the aquifer and further enhance inflow and recovery times in water wells.

In certain instances Jet Mining can be used in sensitive environmental applications where surface ground disturbance is an issue or where a subsurface contamination event has occurred and the Jet Mining application could be utilized to remove the hazardous material.