Abstract: A borehole mining tool comprising a drill string having an inner pipe column and an outer pipe column. Water is forced under high pressure down an annulus between the outer pipe and inner pipe. A hydromonitor is attached to the end of the drill string. A nozzle in the hydromonitor directs the pressurized water into a stope or work area, thereby loosening the material to be mined. The slurry is educted from the mined area by the action of a venturi attached downstream of the hydromonitor. Water flow through the venturi creates a vacuum which draws the pregnant slurry from the work area up through the inner pipe to the surface. A plurality of tools may be attached to the hydromonitor by a connection comprising a gasket having an interference fit. The gasket allows quick connection and removal of a plurality of tools from the hydromonitor. A radar is include to provide an image of the stope being worked.

Abstract: A method of working metalliferous deposits which includes tapping a pay zone by development boreholes, hydraulically mining for a mineral in the pay zone through the formation of brine having a level which is maintained below the location of hydraulic mining of the mineral, shaping a working chamber by shifting the location of hydraulic mining along the axis of the borehole within the confines of the pay zone and lifting the brine out of the working chamber to the surface. The hydraulic mining of the mineral is alternated with the lift-of brine to the surface, such that the location of hydraulic mining is shifted from the floor of the pay zone to the roof of the pay zone at a speed which is not less than the speed at which the level of brine is rising in the working chamber. The method also includes tapping a pair of boreholes and forming working chambers in each.

Abstract: A method of downhole hydraulicking mineral resources includes production panels being laid out at a deposit, holes being sunk in a longitudinal axis of each production panel, and device for hydraulicking mineral resources, comprising a monitor and a means of lifting pulp to the surface, being lowered into each of the holes. A mineral is broken hydraulically by a jet from the monitor, and the monitor jet being displaced at least once in a horizontal plane within confines of a main sector extending in a direction opposite to that in which a next hole is located, in radial working so that pillars are formed therebetween. An angle of each radial working is about the divergence angle of the jet of the monitor, and the angle the radial working make with each other is decided by the conditions of stability of the pillars between the radial workings during a period of driving a radial working.

Abstract: A device for borehole hydraulic mining includes a pipeline for delivering fluid into the hole accommodated inside a pipeline for bringing pulp to the surface and featuring a constant inside diameter along the entire length of this pipeline. The pipeline for delivering fluid into the hole carries a hydraulic jet. The device also has a hydraulic elevator with a fluid and pulp mixing chamber secured to the lower end of the pipeline for bringing pulp to the surface, and a nozzle secured to the lower end of the pipeline for delivering fluid into the hole. The fluid and pulp mixing chamber and the nozzle of the hydraulic elevator enclose the pipeline for drilling fluid into the hole with clearances allowed.

Abstract: The method of downhole hydraulicking of mineral resources consists in sinking main holes, fitting the main holes with casings down to a depth below a lower boundary of a pay-out bed, installing an apparatus for hydraulicking mineral resources in each main hole, breaking rock and forming cavities in a bedrock by a jet from a monitor provided in the apparatus for hydraulicking mineral resources. Auxiliary holes are sunk each above a face of each cavity, using a drilling tool, down to the cavity so that the mineral enters the cavity from the auxiliary hole as soon as the drilling tool is withdrawn therefrom. Pulp is lifted to the surface through the main holes until overburden rock is identified in the pulp.