PRE-C
ONCENTRA TION AND ORE SOR TING
IMA has been collaborating with a client on a mine hoist skip-based sorting application in Europe where e it has installed XRF-based FCA sensors on existing infrastructure the hoist control system carried out some automation engineering to ensure the IMA FCA interface was able to feed this information through to the control interface seamlessly.
The analysis looks not at gold, but at arsenic grade, which has a proven correlation to the yellow metal at this operation, according to Hakala.
“ There is a high and well understood relationship between the two at the mine, so we use the operation’ s cutoff grade, which is based on arsenic content, and then connect the arsenic grade data per skip to the skip ID on the hoist system as part of the discharge process,” he said.
This project started more than a year ago and it included in the beginning a comparison sequence where close to 500 t of material was analysed against both the FCA sensor data and data from lab-based sampling.
“ I think the lab results showed that the calibration model worked very well,” Hakala explained
. Over a period of several weeks both IMA and the client’ s engineers saw the potential benefit of such analysis, with, on some weeks, waste rock dilution being higher than others.
“ Some of this‘ waste’ would be considered ore without such a system and would be uneconomical to process in their flotation process,”
Hakala said. The analysis has been used to complete a technical proof of concept for the solution, with
the two parties looking to agree on what the next stage may look like later this year.
“ In the meantime, the FCA analysers are still fitted on a conveyor and the readings are available to the team,” Hakala explained.
Looking beyond this operation, specifically, IMA believes most of the industry is receptive to leveragingg the benefits of such a solution. Skip- is worth studying for based sorting any underground mine using mine hoists to reduce waste rock dilution, improve mill feed ore homogen isation and to monitor and improve mining quality, IMA says. IMA offers the FCA analyser rental service with real-time reporting system for the analysed grades and tonnages for these e studies.
“ When I compare today with 2005, the year I first engaged with an IMA solution, the industry has moved on considerably,” Hakala said.“ Back then we got to the end of the project with an outstanding technical result, showcasing that the operation was processing material that was both above and below the cutoff grade. At that point, the client viewed that data as a headache, not as an opportunity.
“ Today
, mining companies know that without data they simply cannot improve their operations.”
NextOre on pain points
, potential
NextOre CEO, Chris Beal, has observed a notable difference in the mining sector’ s receptiveness to adopting new technologies over the last two years, tying this observation to a period of consolidation and heightened conservatism.
“ I would describe that period as what felt like the early stages of a contractive part of the commodity cycle, which has seen lots of workers getting cut from their jobs,” he told IM.“ There are a number of industrial commodities sitting in bad territory; gold probably being the major exception, and to some extentt copper. At the same time, costs are rising with inflation. This has seen everybody act very conservativ ely
, reducing capital spending and deferring new projects.” Beal sees“ green shoots” that are tied to some of these capital restrictions, however.
“ At some of these Tier One assets, there is an acknowledgement from owners that even they may now have a‘ burning platform’ on their hands; that they need to address their operational problems and, in many cases, expand their metal production,” he said.“ A low-
68 International Mining | APRIL 2025