Palangana ("Bowl" in Spanish) first commenced production in 1976 as a 50 gpm mobile pilot operation while
the commerical production facility was being constructed. The project was located inside a salt dome depression 6 miles north of Benavides, TX
in Duval County. The Ion Exchange (IX) Columns were multi-stage, upflow
Bureau of Mines design. Loaded IX resin was pneumatically transferred to a stripping column where the uranium product was
recovered.
This operation initially used ammonium carbonate (ph > 9.0) as the complexing agent, but later conversion to sodium carbonate
was made.
The plant was designed to operate at low flowrates (>600 gpm) and high feed grades (>300 mg/l U3O8
which was later to prove ineffective.
The wellfield patterns used were exclusively 5 spot patterns during this early evolutionary stage of this new mining technique.
"Push-Pull" flow (60,000 gallons injected immediately followed by 60,000 gallons produced from the same well) was employed for
the first several years which later progressed to line-drive flow between adjacent wells.
This project was acquired by Chevron in 1980 and eventually was restored and reclaimed in the early 1990s.
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Click on image to enlarge
Palangana Pilot
1976
Palangana Commerical Plant
1976
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