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Analysis of experience in mining sedimentary deposits of the Uchkuduk type
Анализ опыта разработки осадочных месторождений учкудукского типа
- Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combinat, Navoi, Uzbekistan
Highlights
- Sugraly: discovered in 1961; four interstratal, confined aquifers with hot groundwater.
- Depth of ore bodies: up to 500 m.
- Temperature of mine water and rock: 42–53 °C.
- Kyzylkumsky shaft (1969): main thermal aquifer below 411 m; shaft completed at the 441.5 m mark.
- Shafts 4-2, 4-3, 4-4 and 4-5: 420, 480, 520 and 460 m deep, 3.6 m across.
- Cooling: stationary refrigeration plants (KhTMF-235-2000 machines) at shafts 2-4 and 4-1; hot mine water carried in 315 mm polyethylene pipes.
- Aquifers: four at Uchkuduk, four at Sugraly, six (confined) at Sabyrsay.
Keywords
- thermal water
- mine water
- uranium mining
- confined aquifer
- mine cooling
- Sugraly
- Beshbulak depression
- Kyzylkum
- Uchkuduk
Summary
The author reviews how the Navoi Mining and Metallurgical Combinat mined the Uchkuduk, Sugraly and Sabyrsay uranium deposits. All three are infiltration-type sedimentary deposits, with the ore at the edge where a zone of oxidation within the strata pinches out, and are known as deposits of the Uchkuduk type. At Uchkuduk, on the south-eastern flank of the Altyntau anticline, Upper Cretaceous sediments rest on Upper Palaeozoic granites, and four aquifers are found within the deposit; Sabyrsay has six confined aquifers. Open-pit uranium mining at Uchkuduk ended in 1994, the last ore left the Sabyrsay underground workings in 1983, and by 1997 all of the combine’s uranium came from in-situ leaching.
Sugraly, in the central Kyzylkum, was discovered in 1961. Its ore field lies on the south-eastern flank of the Beshbulak depression and has four aquifers, all interstratal and confined, which carry hot groundwater. The ore lies as deep as 500 m, and the mine water and the surrounding rock are at 42–53 °C. Shafts were begun in 1966 (Kyzylkumsky, at deposit No. 2-3) and 1967 (Oktyabrsky, at deposit No. 4).
In 1969, once the Kyzylkumsky shaft had reached 411 m, it had to cross the main confined aquifer, a thick layer with thermal water under high pressure. The aquifer was crossed with little delay and the shaft completed at the 441.5 m mark, which proved that thick, high-pressure aquifers with thermal water can be passed with vertical shaft-sinking shields. Shafts 3.6 m across were also drilled, to depths of 420–520 m. The underground climate was controlled with stationary refrigeration plants (KhTMF-235-2000 machines) at shafts 2-4 and 4-1. The hot mine water (42–53 °C) was captured, kept apart from the mine air and carried away in 315 mm polyethylene pipes laid along the workings instead of drainage ditches.
Funding of new construction stopped in 1988, and rising costs made the mines unprofitable. A 1995 project provided for closing mines No. 2 and No. 4 at Sugraly.
How to cite
O. N. Malgin (1997). Analysis of experience in mining sedimentary deposits of the Uchkuduk type. Gorniy vestnik Uzbekistana (Mining Bulletin of Uzbekistan), 1997, No. 1, pp. 34–40. https://gorniyvestnik.uz/ru/release/1997/1