Expected grades for ISL water solution mining are .05 to .15, so the URZ grades are right in line with that...
"The make-break point for a formation’s permeability is its Darcy rating. How high is the Darcy? A typical Darcy can range from minus 1000 to plus 3. The higher the Darcy, the more permeable the formation and that would help determine how economic the orebody is. An acceptable range would be one-half to one Darcy. What is a Darcy? Catchpole said, “It is gallons per day over feet squared.” He added a pure hydrologist would calculate the feet per day or centimeters per second to get a more accurate permeability assessment. However, the Darcy is a widely accepted measuring unit in the industry.
Until a company gets its Darcy rating on its property, one can’t be completely certain the property can be mined by ISR. What guidelines does one depend upon? Catchpole said, “Historical research can give you permeability levels for a formation.” So we asked Catchpole how he felt about his Excalibur properties. He answered, “We know our properties are permeable enough.” How permeable will be answered with the pump tests.
Other Factors
Uranium grades can be a contentious point, so we asked our ad hoc panel of experts. “Grade is the driving force,” Harry Anthony shot back. We asked him about companies which said they could run an economic ISR operation with grades as low, or lower than 0.02. Anthony laughed, “They are crazy. They’d be out of business before they started.” Catchpole was more reserved in responding, “It probably wouldn’t have an economic recovery.” Strathmore’s David Miller offered a more technical analysis, “Frankly, that will not likely have enough recoverable pounds. The operating grade feeding the plant will be too low. What is the best grade? 0.05, 0.10, or 0.15. It depends upon the deposit."
this is from the Strathmore site, posted at StockInterview...
|
