Abstract
Mining is one of the most energy-intensive industries in the world and a large fraction of the energy usage comes from crushing and grinding. As most valued minerals and metals have concentration from few percent to few parts per million, rocks often need to be crushed to a sub-millimeter particle size to allow the liberation in geometallurgical processes. In conjunction with the worldwide decline in deposits grades, the mining industry is shifting towards energy and resource-efficient processes that will ensure economic viability and long-term sustainability. To achieve this goal, it is essential to reduce the amount of waste rocks entering the mineral processing circuits. Pre-concentration of valuable mineral phases using bulk-sorting presents a major advance in such process optimization, but the ability to generate real time and spatially distributed mineralogical data become critical.
Combining laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) with artificial intelligence (AI), Lumine™ is an unprecedented sensing platform developed for the characterization of run-of-mine ore. It features multi-elemental analysis, high sensitivity and specificity, non-contact, capable of more than hundred measurements per second. Lumine™ technology is not only capable of extracting the multi-elemental content of the rock matrix, but is also capable of quantifying the mineral content1.
In order to advance the level of maturity of Lumine™ toward mining operations, a prototype adapted to industrial conditions to be used directly on a conveyor belt for bulk ore sorting applications2 is nearing completion. This Lumine™ industrial prototype uses three key approaches: smart mineralogy powered by AI, high-performance autofocusing optics and an advanced air nozzle that cleans the laser optical path and the rock surface of dusts. These approaches are used to overcome challenges in the mining industry for real-time mineralogical characterization on conveyor belt.
Finally, to test and validate Lumine™ in its final stages of development in an environment that simulates mining conveyor conditions, the National Research Council Canada has constructed the Mining Sensor Test Facility. This national facility located in Boucherville, Quebec, is dedicated to the test and validation of sensors to be used on cross-belt setting.
In this talk, we will present the development pathway and the performance of the LumineTM technology as well as the capabilities of our new Mining Sensor Test Facility in view of bulk sorting applications. Moreover, mineral quantification and validation obtained on rocks from different deposits will be discussed. These efforts are the first steps toward real-time cross-belt mineral characterization that is being considered by the mining industry as a real breakthrough in mineral processing.
- J. El Haddad, E. Soares de Lima Filho, F. Vanier, A. Harhira, C. Padioleau, M. Sabsabi, G. Wilkie, A. Blouin, Multiphase mineral identification and quantification by laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy, Minerals Engineering (2019) 134: 281‑ 290. DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2019.02.025.
- A. Blouin, D. Gagnon, J. El Haddad, E. Soares de Lima Filho, F. Vanier, A. Harhira, P. Bouchard, F. Boismenu, A. Hamel, A. Beauchesne, C. Padioleau, T. Vaillancourt, A. Plugatyr, M. Sabsabi, G. J. Wilkie, LIBS mineralogy : Quantitative mineralogy on the belt, in Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Preconcentration Digital Conference Proceedings(2020) 206–216.