Patent ID: 6164727
Filing Date: 2000-12-26
Classification: E21B

Abstract:
A method of mining a soluble mineral that employs a solvent reservoir and a separate power fluid reservoir at the earth's surface comprising the steps of:(a) drilling a plurality of spaced apart injection wells in the earth that communicate with a mineral producing formation;(b) drilling a plurality of production wells into the earth that are interspaced with said injection wells and that communicate with said mineral producing formation;(c) installing a jet pump system in each of said production wells, each jet pump system having a power fluid inlet and a production fluid outlet at the earths surface and a bottom hole fluid inlet;(d) injecting a solvent in liquid form from said solvent reservoir into said injection wells to contact said mineral producing formation, the solvent serving to dissolve mineral from the formation to provide a reservoir of bottom hole fluid, said jet pump bottom hole fluid inlet being in communication with the bottom hole fluid;(e) for each said jet pump system, pumping power fluid from said power fluid reservoir down said power fluid inlet through a pump jet nozzle into a pump throat where venturi action draws bottom hole fluid into the pump that is mixed with said power fluid to form production fluid that flows outwardly of said production fluid outlet at the earths surface;(f) at the earth's surface, extracting at least a portion of said mineral from said production fluid leaving a recycled fluid;(g) conveying said recycled fluid to said power fluid reservoir ready for use in step (e) and;(h) continuously repeating steps (d) through (g).