INNOVATIVE WATER-FREE MINERAL PROCESSING. Jens-Michael Bergmann

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1 INNOVATIVE WATER-FREE MINERAL PROCESSING Jens-Michael Bergmann 22. IM Congress Vancouver

2 WHO IS TOMRA SORTING? Recycling Mining Food Recycling / Food

3 WATER Drinking water is one of the worlds most valuable resources!

4 AND it gets more and more scarce.

5 MINERAL/ORE PROCESSING ROM Comminution (multiple stage) Wet Separation

6 WET PROCESSING TOOLS

7 MINERAL/ORE PROCESSING ROM Comminution (multiple stage) Wet Separation Concentrate Waste

8 AND WASTE IS HERE: Syncrude Tailings Dam - Mildred Lake

9 EVERY SINGLE TON IN THAT TAILINGS POND had costs for: Crushing Screening Milling Process water Flotation reagents: frothers, collectors, modifiers Pumping and pipes Water treatment: filters, thickeners, flocculants Ponds erection, dams, and lining Pond monitoring Use of land; local and environmental permits Etc.

10 MINERAL/ORE PROCESSING ROM Comminution Primary/Secondary Dry sensor sorting Milling + Wet Separation Waste Lumps Concentrate Waste

11 WHAT IS SENSOR BASED SORTING? Hand Picking Agricola 1556 The oldest technology of physical rock separation, piece by piece.

12 STILL THE SAME SINCE >558 YEARS Handpicking, Turkey, 2012 Properties of every individual rock are measured by suitable sensors and mechanically separated.

13 SORTING PRINCIPLE - XRT BELT SORTER X-ray source Vibratory feeder Separation chamber X-ray sensor Pneumatic blowing unit

14 AVAILABLE SENSOR SYSTEMS Gammaradiation X-ray Sensor/ Technology Material Property Applications RM (Radiometric) Natural Gamma Radiation Fuel, Precious Metals XRT (X-ray transmission) Atomic Density Base Metals Precious Metals Industrial Minerals Fuel, Diamonds ED-XRF (Energy Dispersive XRF) X-ray Fluorescence Base Metals Precious Metals Industrial Minerals XRF (X-ray Fluorescence) Visible Fluorescence under X-rays Diamonds Ultraviolet (UV) Visible light (VIS) COLOR (CCD Color Camera, LASER) Reflection, Absorption, Transmission Base-, Precious Metals Industrial Minerals Diamonds PM (Photometric) Monochromatic Reflection/Absorption Industrial Minerals Diamonds Near Infrared (NIR) NIR (Near Infrared Spectrometry) Reflection, Absorption Base metals Industrial Minerals Infrared (IR) IR (Infrared cam) Heat conductivity, heat dissipation Base Metals Industrial Minerals Radio waves EM (Electro- Magnetic sensor) Conductivity, permeability Base Metals

15 INFLUENCE OF WATER ON COLOR dry wet

16 DRY OR WET SENSING? Sensor Technology Gamma radiation X-Ray transmission Surface detection Subsurface detection Yes Yes Comment Not really applicable on Industrial Minerals Color camera Yes Very limited Very sensitive to surface coating (dust, clay) Laser Scattering Yes Limited Using the near surface minerals Near Infrared Yes Limited Using the near surface minerals Electromagnetic Yes Based on conductivity Not really applicable on IM All technologies with full or limited sub-surface detection capabilities could be used without washing water

17 COLOR

18 COLOR SORTING It is the most popular sensor sorting technology It is most renowned- hundreds of machines are working worldwide in IM Itworksbetterwithwater, but dry sortingalso worksin winter Excellent results need excellent illumination technology (water-cooled and focused LED-lamps) Latest camera technology allows higher resolution and sharper images

19 FINE ROCK SALT Feature Sorting Task Feed rate Size range Value High quality salt for water purification approx. 30 t/h 8-15 mm Sorter setup 1 high resolution sorter 0.25mm/Pixel, 1200mm Reject rate Approx. 25% (approx. 5000pcs/s)

20 FINE MARBLE Feature Sorting Task Feed rate Size range Value High quality Marble granulate for plaster approx. 6 t/h mm Sorter setup 1 high resolution sorter 0.25mm/Pixel, 900mm Reject rate Up to 0.5% (approx. 600pcs/s) Infeed Final product

21 LASER SCATTERING

22 THE STRUCTURE APPROACH A laser is permanently scanning the material Sorting is based upon the penetration of laser light, which depends on the product structure. A glow or scattering -effect is triggered Reflection Filtering Limestone Quartz Weonlyseethescatter, not the laser point any more.

23 LASER IMAGES Picture Raw data Image Classified data Image With color one can see no difference in between both rocks, whereas using Laser the sorter gets a great signal from the scattering effect inside the Quartz.

24 LASER IMAGES OF SAME-COLORED ROCKS

25 SOME LASER APPLICATIONS Quartz from Sandstone Quartz from Feldspar Rocks with thin quartz veins Calcite from Fluorite Potassium salt from Clay And many more

26 NEAR INFRARED Near-Infrared (NIR) scanning is like taking a fingerprint from the material surface

27 NEAR INFRARED SPECTRA OF SOME MINERALS Reflectance [%] 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% Chlorapatite Chert Calcite Magnesite Wavelength [micrometres] NIR Sorters aremeasureingthereflectionintensityofmultiple wavelengths in parallel

28 MAGNESITE Unfortunately it is difficult to demonstrate invisible effect in photos, Magnesite high Si containing particles from low Si pieces Magnesite low Si Magnesite high Si but the grades are clearly visible for the scanner

29 OTHER NIR APPLICATIONS Phosphates from Calcite or Dolomite Talc from Calcite/Dolomite Quartz from Calcite/Dolomite Borate from Calcite/Dolomite Barite form Calcite/Dolomite Talc from Quartz Magnesite from Quartz Magnesite from Quartz Calcite from Dolomite Calcite from Fluorite Gypsum from Anhydrite And many more

30 X-RAY TRANSMISSION what are a few suitcases per minute compared to rocks per second?

31 WHAT IS THE CHALLANGE? XRT-technology measures the level of x-ray energy after the rays have passed an object. This level of attenuation is directly depending on atomic density and thickness of the object. X-Rays X-Rays Thickness Thickness Projected object This means: Two pieces of different materials can create the same projected picture. Therefore we use the patented Dual Energy technology (DE-XRT).

32 XRT IMAGE PROCESSING All rocks are subjected to high intensity X-rays on TWO energy levels: Low and High Low Channel Broad Band X-Ray Tube Classified Image High Channel XRT Image Processing DE-XRT Sensor Density Zones high medium low

33 XRT SORTING OF PHOSPHATES Chert / Flintstone SiO 2 Apatite Ca 5 [(PO 4 ) 3 (OH,F,Cl)]

34 XRT SORTING OF PHOSPHATES

35 LIVE AND PROCESSED 150T/H

36 XRT SORTING OF PHOSPHATES Feed Material Phosphate Ore with chert/ Flintstone (SiO 2 ) contaminants Objective Remove as much chert as possible before downstream process of crushing, milling, flash calcination or for flotation

37 XRT SORTING OF PHOSPHATES Results Decreased Chert-content from 11 % to ~0.2 % (η~98 %) Recovery of > 98 % of the phosphate

38 FIELD EXAMPLE 2 XRT units operating side by side on two grain bands in parallel; here tungsten ore

39 OTHER XRT APPLICATIONS Clay by grade (e.g. Fe 2 O 3 ) Calcite from Dolomite Calcite from Flint Baritebygrade ors.g. REE-minerals Bauxite And many more

40 SORTER CAPACITIES / GRAIN SIZE 400 Capacity [t/h m] Additional Scavenger Simple Sorting task Advanced Sorting task Average rock size D 50 [mm] Parameters: working width 1,0m; min/max particle size 1:3

41 SORTER COST/TON VS. GRAIN SIZE Cost [$/t] Sorter cost per ton incl. selected ancillaries Investment Operation Total Average rock size D 50 [mm] Parameters: 3 types of Color/NIR sorter; 20% Waste in feed; grain size: 10-30/30-75/ mm; feed rate 30/90/150 t/h; 3600 hrs/yr

42 TOMRA SORTING MACHINES Are especially designed for the mining market Use most sophisticated scanning technologies Have highest rigidity, stability and reliability due to a lot of field experience Are serviced through a network with currently 160 field engineers worldwide, here are some:

43 THANK YOU 4