ANALYSIS
At last year’ s SME in Phoenix, ZEISS Microscopy launched the MinSCAN ruggedised automated mineralogy system. Thanks to advances in ease of use of mineral discrimination, it is capable of 24 / 7 at-line mineralogical analysis. The system is currently in operation on major mine sites operated by First Quantum Minerals and MMG both in Africa and South America and according to the company it has been successfully integrated into daily process mineralogy decision making
on-site laboratories commencing operations in the first semester, and another five expected to begin operations in the second half of the year.”
For the first nine months of 2016, Bureau Veritas stated:“ The Metals & Minerals segment( M & M, 33 % of revenue), which had posted a strong decline in the first six months of 2016, was back in positive territory in the third quarter( up 2.4 %), driven by volume growth in upstream-related services in Australia( notably in the gold segment). In addition, trade-related activities remained slightly up, led by the noncoal-related activities. Overall, for the first nine months of 2016, organic growth came out at a negative 4.4 %.”
In technology, aside from more efficient and accurate equipment, a lot of analysis methods are being developed for specific minerals and groups of minerals to better enable the mining and minerals industry to be targeted in their approach. There has also been significant consolidation in this market. Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc last year announced that it has completed its acquisition of FEI Company Inc,
the leader in high-performance electron microscopy, for $ 107.50 per share in cash, or a total purchase price of approximately $ 4.2 billion. The completion of the transaction follows the receipt of all required regulatory approvals. The business has become part of Thermo Fisher’ s Analytical Instruments Segment.
“ We are pleased to complete this transaction and officially welcome our new colleagues from FEI to Thermo Fisher,” said Marc Casper, President and CEO of Thermo Fisher Scientific.“ With FEI’ s leading electron microscopy platform, we’ re now in an even stronger position to help our life sciences customers accelerate advancements in structural biology. FEI’ s products also create new opportunities for us to serve customers in materials science markets that increasingly rely on nanotechnologies. FEI is an outstanding strategic fit with our Analytical Instruments business and we will create significant value for our customers by leveraging our global scale and commercial reach to extend the use of these technologies. For our shareholders, we expect to deliver immediate earnings accretion and synergies.”
The company expects to realise total synergies of approximately $ 80 million by year three following the close, consisting of approximately $ 55 million of cost synergies and approximately $ 25 million of adjusted operating income1 benefit from revenue-related synergies.
Handheld analysis developments
The handheld analysis industry continues to make advances in terms of speed of analysis, accuracy and durability. Olympus recently released the new the Vanta™ portable XRF analyser( pXRF) in September 2016. The Vanta analyser is the successor to the DELTA ® portable XRF, which has been a trusted tool for hundreds of mining and exploration companies over the last five years. In designing the Vanta analyser, Olympus says it focused on improving the key strengths of the DELTA analyser( ruggedness, reliability, accuracy, and precision) while adding a new, intuitive user interface, powerful software, and external connectivity.
The release of the Vanta analyser makes it one of the most rugged portable XRF devices currently available. Vanta analysers are designed to pass a US military standard 4 ft drop test( MIL-STD-810G), are IP64 or IP65 rated, and feature a detector shutter to help
protect against accidental damage. With an optional fan, Vanta analysers can operate at 50 ° C at full duty cycle, providing greater confidence to users in hot environments.
Todd Houlahan, Director of Olympus’ International Mining Group elaborated:“ We are proud of our achievements in portable XRF over the last 10 years. We are thankful for the support of our customers and the long-term relationships we have with them. It’ s great to again release a product that genuinely adds so much value to users.”
In addition to the focus on ruggedness, Vanta analysers also feature ultra-low-noise electronics and proprietary developments in signal processing. Known as Axon™ technology, this combination delivers improved precision and faster test times. This provides greater repeatability and less instrument-to-instrument variation. For the user, this results in improved analytical performance while providing greater throughput.
Increasing the productivity of Olympus’ customers it says was paramount when developing the Vanta analyser’ s new user interface, software, and connectivity features. The UI features touch and swipe controls familiar to smartphone users. Optional sample and panoramic cameras are available and extensive report generation and traceability features provide improved data management processes. With multiple ways to export and review results, including USB direct connect, USB flash drive, or SD card, sharing results and creating reports is fast and easy.” Vanta analysers also have optional wireless LAN( Wi- Fi) and Bluetooth ® for real-time data transfer and connectivity to third party databases and software. Built in GPS now provides a seamless association of analytical data with location when testing in the field.
Olympus says it is also seeing increased uptake of its unique portable XRD( X-ray diffraction) systems for real-time mineralogy, the TERRA ® and BTX II™ XRD analysers. Greater demand for geo-metallurgical information at every stage of the minerals cycle has prompted major mining operations to begin utilising these tools for mineralogical information in exploration and mining applications.
Bruker recently introduced the new TRACER™ 5i handheld X-ray fluorescence( XRF) elemental analyser. The new TRACER 5i is more sensitive, flexible and field interactive, while retaining the unique advantages and comprehensive analytical software that the previous TRACER model has been recognised for. The new TRACER 5i incorporates a more powerful tube and detector, an automated filter wheel and a manual filter slot, selectable collimation, Bruker’ s patented SharpBeam™ optimised geometry, pressure and temperature
62 International Mining | FEBRUARY 2017