PRECONCENTRATION AND ORE SORTING
– some through direct detection capabilities and others through inferred analysis that has been proven in the past.
“ The breadth of insights likely to come from this analysis is vast.”
The‘ premium product’ currently being developed is a“ mobile unit” able to provide mineralogical analysis within seconds through a“ tightly coupled illumination and sensing system”. This system, along with the supporting algorithms, avoids the illumination pitfalls that have typically plagued spectral solutions operating in the field as well as the need to factor in‘ hang time’ for grade-based feedback.
The buckets of shovels and wheel loaders – an area ESCO knows well through its premium ground engaging tools offering – are where these mobile sensing units could end up first.
“ As we’ ve sought to speed up our development while understanding the full capabilities of integrating the various technologies at our disposal, we have pivoted towards the idea of delivering machine-mounted mobile systems to monitor extraction at the dig face,” Carpenter said.“ That’ s where we feel we will provide the highest value for the customers.
“ It’ s also an area that makes a lot of sense considering how material flows into the bucket during a dig cycle; if we’ re able to accurately characterise that bucket-load of material during the dig, we can impact the shovel-and-truck interaction that follows by providing high precision real-time bulk sorting capability.” But the analysis has further ramifications.“ By characterizing the material we’ re digging, we can push that data upstream to enhance the block model, as well as tell the downstream guys what’ s heading their way in the plant,” Carpenter says.“ That’ s always been the dream: to tap into the digital backbone of the entire flowsheet.”
Before the mobile unit is mounted on a machine, the company has lined up its first“ stationary” field trial where it will be validating mineralogical information at the dig face and at stockpiles. Test work could be ongoing this month. Then there are a whole host of geographies and commodities lined up.
“ We’ ve got a queue of interested parties in a very diverse mix of commodities that want to see a unit on site,” Carpenter says.“ These are very exciting times, with plans to release a commercial product in 2027.”
Looking for a 20 / 20 outcome
As part of the AVANTIS project, IMA Engineering recently carried out a test campaign to explore the potential for BOS of iron, vanadium and titanium ores at the Otanmäki mine in Finland.
This work supports Project Objective
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As part of the AVANTIS project, IMA Engineering recently carried out a test campaign to explore the potential for BOS of iron, vanadium and titanium ores at the Otanmäki mine in Finland
2.4 of the EU Horizon 2020 funded project,‘ To develop a selective process feed optimisation with bulk ore sorting under Work Package 2 of Novel selective blasting and bulk ore sorting technologies.’
With a goal of defining the optimal fragmentation by blasting that contributes to optimal mineral processing of the specific ores studied in terms of energy efficiency, concentrate yield and recovery rate, the BOS targets to increase the process feed ore grade by 20 % and to reduce energy consumption for grinding by 20 %.
The IMA Fast Conveyor Analyser( ICA), a commercial Energy Dispersive-XRF analyser, was used for analysing the blasted ore.
This cross-belt analyser uses XRF technology to measure the elemental composition of bulk materials on a conveyor belt in tough mining environments, providing accurate and rapid results for sorting and quality control purposes, the company says.
Among other deployments, it has accurately analysed nickel, copper, zinc, manganese and iron from ore at the Terrafame mine, in Finland.
At Otanmäki, the analyser was installed on a 20-m long industrial conveyor belt, with a specially designed two-way sorting chute, built for the AVANTIS project, used for sorting the blasted material below. The chute was designed and manufactured to handle mid-sized industrial operations, with a capacity of 350 t / h. The chute was installed directly under the discharge end of the conveyor.
Ore from the blast bench was fed into a hopper with a 180 mm grizzly screen, which removed oversized material. The undersize fraction was analysed with the FCA and sorted based on iron content, being separated into high-grade( ore) and low-grade( waste) streams.
With the new MineSense and GEOVIA integration, bucket‐ and truck‐level grade data from ShovelSense is available directly within Surpac in near‐real time after blasting and loading
International Mining | MARCH 2026