Learning Objectives

Notes

13.1
To compare and contrast the two major types of uranium mines.

Students should know that uranium is mined either by open pit or by underground technology, depending on the depth of the ore body. They should explore the advantages of each method. Points of comparison could include labour costs, required machinery, safety hazards, ventilation, weather, supplies and equipment and removal of debris. Cost estimates around maintenance, repairs, fuel costs and electricity can be obtained from the offices of either Cogema or Cameco in La Ronge.

Students can take a virtual tour of a Cogema mine in Saskatchewan on the Keewatin Career Development Corporation website. The bibliography contains the address of the site.

Students could continue to add to a glossary of terms, if they began one in Module 12.

13.2
To identify the main technological challenges in uranium mining and describe some of the major changes in mining technology over the past 50 years.

Students will be aware of two key requirements to accessing the ore – removing or bypassing the overburden as cheaply as possible and removing the ground water.

Students should know that technology has changed mining considerably. Until 1975 the mines were labour intensive. INCO, the largest nickel producer in the world, went from a labour force of over 25,000 in 1970 to under 9,000 in the year 2000 while increasing the amount of nickel it produced. The technology has become more sophisticated, with workers requiring more education and training; for example, the person running the McLean Lake mining operation has a doctoral degree in chemical engineering.

Exposure to radiation remains the number one safety concern in uranium mining. The Cigar Lake Mine has such high levels of radiation that people cannot be exposed to the ore. Robotics engineering has made it unnecessary for humans to be near the face of the ore body

Students could construct a model of one of the two mine types and if desired could conduct in a number of science-engineering projects, such as building machinery or using remote-controlled robotic toys to simulate a mining environment.

13.3
To explore factors affecting the cost of opening and operating a mine.

Students should be aware of the costs involved in opening a mine. Locating the ore body involves millions of dollars of expenditure, with the possibility of no return. Infrastructure costs (technical needs, knowledge needs, transportation systems, etc.) usually run into the billions of dollars. Because one company usually cannot afford to open a mine by itself, partnerships with other companies help minimize the liability.

Students could work on a number of cost related problems facing mine supervisors. For example, is it cheaper to buy a new scoop tram or rebuild an old one? Costs of materials and running operations can be obtained from the Cogema office in La Ronge.

A comparison of the start up costs, potential profit and risks of a business familiar to students, such as farming or a retail store, could be done.

Students working in groups could modify the game of Monopoly so that it reflects the mining reality for northern Saskatchewan.

13.4
To describe and model the basic processes involved in a milling operation and to examine some ongoing mill operating issues.

Students can take a virtual tour of a Cogema mill in Saskatchewan on the Keewatin Career Development Corporation website.

Students will understand the process to extract uranium from the ore through a series of steps – crushing, dissolving the uranium into a solution, precipitating the uranium from solution, drying the uranium and getting rid of the waste.

To simulate the process in simple experimental form, students could try to extract 100% salt from a known sand-salt mixture. Or they could try a more complex set of simulations, as follows:

Students could try to solve a problem that occurs in the first phase of the milling process: grinding. In each group there will be an operator, a quality control person, an engineer and a safety patrol. The students' job is to evaluate how a sugar cube can be crushed using different resources (a bag of marbles, a rolling pin, mortar and pestle, large weights, e.g., someone's foot). The evaluation should take into consideration the different perspectives offered by each group member.

Students, working in the same "specialist" teams, could try to solve a problem that occurs in the second (slurry) and third (precipitate) phases of the milling process. Their job is to evaluate how to take the crushed sugar from experiment 1, add it to an oil/water solution and separate the two liquids. In this case the oil represents sulphuric acid. Again, stress the need to retrieve 100% of the uranium (sugar). The oil is sent to the tailings pond.

Finally, the same teams could solve a problem that occurs in the fourth phase (drying) of the milling process. The students' job is to evaluate which process - heating or evaporation - works the best in retrieving the sugar.

In simulating mill operation issues, students could try, for example, to solve air and water quality problems in the mill. The usual teams of "specialists" could evaluate how to purify a sample of dirty air or water and how to dispose of the waste materials. As well, students could work on a number of cost-related problems facing mill supervisors. For example, is it cheaper to hire a new worker or have workers work overtime? Costs of materials and running operations can be obtained from the Cogema office in La Ronge.