Abstract
With the volatile commodity prices, increasing energy cost and declining ore grades mining companies are more than ever forced to look for higher efficiency and sustainability in the production process.
Modern sensor technology and powerful data processing capabilities are used by mineral processing plants to maximize the recovery of minerals and extract additional value from the lowest grade ore, which wasn’t possible before.
Online elemental analyzers became a standard piece of equipment in modern mining. Applications such as impurity rejection based on real-time raw ore chemical composition can significantly reduce production costs due to removed waste ore.
In mineral processing, metallurgy and processing experts use such data to automatically control the dosage of regents and water in the floatation and beneficiation process. Advanced production control can improve the utilization of recovered minerals and generate additional revenue without shortening the mine time.
LIBS Laser technology used in the Curiosity rover to determine the elemental composition of rocks in Mars finding its way into mining.
Two case studies from installation sites will be covered to demonstrate what can be achieved using modern laser technology.
1. The case from one of the biggest potash manufacturer and beneficiation process improvement based on real-time control of NaCl and KCl.
2. Bulk raw ore impurity rejection based on MgO, SiO2 content case.