US Patent Issued to ILUKA RESOURCES on May 5 for "Method and device for horizontal bore mining" (Australian Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 5 -- United States Patent no. 12,618,308, issued on May 5, was assigned to ILUKA RESOURCES Ltd. (Perth, Australia).

"Method and device for horizontal bore mining" was invented by Christopher Brian Lee (Perth, Australia), Pieter Stephanus Esterhuysen (Perth, Australia) and Tertius Theunis Brits (Perth, Australia).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention provides a mining tool (30) for mining an underground substantially horizontal seam of material comprising an eductor module (60) and a fluidising module (62). The fluidising module (62) includes a plenum (66) adapted to receive high pressure fluid from a mining string, and one or more fluid jet nozzles (42,43,44) for em...