Materials handling
Crushing material into fines increases the number of particles to be analysed which, in turn, increases the ejection rate and the energy costs.
splitter plate and more precise calibration equipment, all helping to ensure greater precision in the alignment between detection and ejection systems required for fine particles sorting.
Waste not, want not
Being able to process even smaller particles is a huge boon to TOMRA Mining’s ore sorter offerings, Hartwig says. As things currently stand, she notes, typical mining processes generate a lot of fines, which either results in a lot of waste material being processed or else the creation of stockpiles until a suitable sorting solution is brought in to process this material properly. “I recall a site visit with a customer and standing in front of a really huge pile of material,” Hartwig notes. “And they were not able to use that properly because processing this material was much too expensive to get the product out of it – so they just put that aside and waited for a solution.” The benefits of TOMRA Mining’s ore sorters, then, is that they can use all the material that a mining operator gets out of a mine in a much more efficient way, creating higher value products while reducing product loss. While developing the new ejection module, extensive test work was conducted at the TOMRA Test Center, using both artificial material mixtures and real-world sample material. The tests showed a spectacular reduction in air consumption compared to industry standards, as well as an improvement in product purity of around 15%. “After that, we were quite confident with what this module can really achieve in the market,” notes Hartwig. From there, TOMRA Mining looking for a specific customer that could gain the maximum benefit out of this new ejection module, and found one in Turkey, who had already been running a COM Tertiary XRT
World Mining Frontiers /
www.nsenergybusiness.com
sorter to produce high-grade magnesite for over two years. This was an opportunity to test the TS100C module in the field, so TOMRA Mining went to that customer with the numbers from the test study and laid out the benefits that they could expect if changes were made to his current setup. At the time, the customer’s sorter was removing up to 50% low-grade and waste material from the raw magnesite feed, with particle sizes ranging from 10–35mm at about 20t/h. “So, a really high ejection rate,” Hartwig summarises. The customer completed several trials, carefully taking note of the energy savings and sorting efficiencies. Just by changing the ejection module, the customer was able to reduce the amount of air consumption by about 70%, with an increase in product recovery with a lower mass-pull-to-waste by producing the same product quality. At the same time, they achieved higher throughputs of about 50% – up from 20t/h to around 30t/h with comparable results. “It was a real win-win for us,” says Hartwig. “To get the information from the field, not just on a smaller sample – to really run it on a daily basis on two or three shifts per day, and really prove the experience, as we had done in the test centre.”
Every resource counts
Of course, improving ore-sorting solutions isn’t only about generating valuable material and reducing costs – it helps reduce mining’s environmental footprint, which is a key focus for TOMRA Mining. Being able to preconcentrate valuable ore through sorting reduces the industry’s reliance on other solutions, which typically involve dense media separation and the use of a lot of water and a lot of chemicals. “‘Greener mining’ sounds a little bit strange because you are digging into the dirt,” says Hartwig. “But I
70% The potential
reduction in energy use on a production scale when using the TS100C ejection module.
TOMRA Mining 19
Salienko Evgenii/
Shutterstock.com
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