Paul M. Bommer

Benefits of Slow-Speed Pumping

One of the most significant operating costs (frequently the largest) associated with sucker-rod pumping is the expense of pulling and repairing the rods, pump, and tubing. Many wells are pulled for repairs so often that they are marginally economic. This problem is made worse by the days of lost production associated with the downtime. This work demonstrates how pumping slowly can solve these difficulties, making marginal wells economic over a long period of time.

Optimization of uranium leach mining

The effects of well pattern and well spacing on uranium recovery and oxidant utilization are considered. As expected, formation permeability heterogeneities and anisotropies are found to be important issues requiring careful consideration; however, it also is shown that the oxidant efficiency and the produced uranium solution concentrations are sensitive to the presence of other minerals competing with uranium for oxidant. If the Damkohler number for competing minerals, which measures the speed of the reaction, exceeds that for uranium, the competing mineral will have to be oxidized completely to recover a large proportion of the uranium. If the Damkohler number is smaller, it may be possible to achieve considerable selectivity for uranium by adjusting the well spacing. 9 refs.