XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3 399
• Energy, water and resource utilization focus
• Role of sorting within the wider context of future
flowsheets
• Proliferation of sensor types
• CPU power and available analysis techniques
• Increased population of sorter installations, predom-
inantly from Steinert, TOMRA, Rados and HPY
• More comprehensive consideration within the wider
mine development studies
• Centres of subject matter expertise
• Interest of large, general process equipment vendors
in sorting
• Amenability testing
• Methods for defining and incorporating the impacts
of heterogeneity of feed and
• Linkage of sorting potential back into the mine scale
models.
CURRENT STATUS AND FOCUS
Given that the whole premise for the use of preconcentra-
tion is that it reduces the processing of non-value feed, it
should be ideally suited to address the associated challenges
of energy, water and grade. In relation to water, there is a
very strong connection to the push for dry comminution
and processing. It is perfectly feasible to use dry equipment
in the early stages of processing, given appropriate manage-
ment of dust and use of suitable materials handling sys-
tems. However, at some point, there has to be a move to
wet beneficiation, simply as there are no dry beneficiation
systems that can be applied at high enough rates to meet
the productivity required in a majority of mining opera-
tions. The move to wet beneficiation, essentially negates the
benefit of dry front-end comminution and processing, if
the mass treated remains the same. Through the applica-
tion of preconcentration, there is the opportunity to reduce
the mass processed, but still achieve the metal production
required. The reduction in the mass processed means that
when the system has to transfer to wet beneficiation, there
is less mass to treat per unit of metal output. The combina-
tion of preconcentration and dry processing, is therefore a
highly attractive proposition.
The discussion regarding dry processing is also a subset
of the wider customized or hybrid comminution-process-
ing debate. Numerous innovative flowsheets have been pro-
posed by vendors and research organizations, in response
to the energy, water and ore recovery imperatives, previ-
ously mentioned. In these flowsheets, bulk sorters and/
or particle-based systems, often appear alongside various
forms of compressive grinding, novel beneficiation and
coarse particle recovery methods. As per the dry processing
angle, the aim is to design the flowsheet so that each piece
of equipment and each stream is configured to exploit spe-
cific features of both the feed and the equipment involved.
Although the development of such a flowsheet does not
sound too dissimilar to a conventional process design,
one of the main concerns is that the splitting of numer-
ous streams to provide optimum treatment also generates a
considerable degree of complexity, both in the design, but
also the operation. This is driven both by the sheer quan-
tity of equipment and the need to accommodate swings in
throughput between circuits based on sorted ore feed. Part
of the complication also relates to the push to exploit libera-
tion behaviours at coarser sizes. Although offering potential
improvements in design and recovery, the requirement to
process further for optimized recovery does not disappear
and, therefore, the finer treatment duty can be more com-
plex than usual, as the material remaining has had the more
amenable material removed earlier.
At the same time, performance of preconcentration
equipment, or methods, has improved significantly, with a
wider range of industrially applicable sensors, larger sorting
deployments, more advanced material analysis and faster
data processing. Some of the technical and technology
improvements, include:
Bulk Sorting
• Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis
(PGNAA)
– Improved data analysis duration and definition
of significance of data in relation to cut-of grade
(Sheehy, 2024)
– Combination with other sensors, i.e., magnetic
resonance in analysis of copper porphyries from
block caving (Cetin et al. 2023).
• Magnetic Resonance
– Deployment on conveyed material at a feed rate of
2800tph (NextOre, 2022)
– Truck scanning version developed (NextOre,
2023)
– Improved definition of applicability to mineral
types.
• Other
• Representivity of surface scanning has been exam-
ined and confirmed in specific cases.
Particle-Based Sorting
• Higher per sorter throughput
• Use of hybrid sensor systems
• Conical sorting machines
• Use of advanced algorithms, in combination with AI
and Machine Learning
• Energy, water and resource utilization focus
• Role of sorting within the wider context of future
flowsheets
• Proliferation of sensor types
• CPU power and available analysis techniques
• Increased population of sorter installations, predom-
inantly from Steinert, TOMRA, Rados and HPY
• More comprehensive consideration within the wider
mine development studies
• Centres of subject matter expertise
• Interest of large, general process equipment vendors
in sorting
• Amenability testing
• Methods for defining and incorporating the impacts
of heterogeneity of feed and
• Linkage of sorting potential back into the mine scale
models.
CURRENT STATUS AND FOCUS
Given that the whole premise for the use of preconcentra-
tion is that it reduces the processing of non-value feed, it
should be ideally suited to address the associated challenges
of energy, water and grade. In relation to water, there is a
very strong connection to the push for dry comminution
and processing. It is perfectly feasible to use dry equipment
in the early stages of processing, given appropriate manage-
ment of dust and use of suitable materials handling sys-
tems. However, at some point, there has to be a move to
wet beneficiation, simply as there are no dry beneficiation
systems that can be applied at high enough rates to meet
the productivity required in a majority of mining opera-
tions. The move to wet beneficiation, essentially negates the
benefit of dry front-end comminution and processing, if
the mass treated remains the same. Through the applica-
tion of preconcentration, there is the opportunity to reduce
the mass processed, but still achieve the metal production
required. The reduction in the mass processed means that
when the system has to transfer to wet beneficiation, there
is less mass to treat per unit of metal output. The combina-
tion of preconcentration and dry processing, is therefore a
highly attractive proposition.
The discussion regarding dry processing is also a subset
of the wider customized or hybrid comminution-process-
ing debate. Numerous innovative flowsheets have been pro-
posed by vendors and research organizations, in response
to the energy, water and ore recovery imperatives, previ-
ously mentioned. In these flowsheets, bulk sorters and/
or particle-based systems, often appear alongside various
forms of compressive grinding, novel beneficiation and
coarse particle recovery methods. As per the dry processing
angle, the aim is to design the flowsheet so that each piece
of equipment and each stream is configured to exploit spe-
cific features of both the feed and the equipment involved.
Although the development of such a flowsheet does not
sound too dissimilar to a conventional process design,
one of the main concerns is that the splitting of numer-
ous streams to provide optimum treatment also generates a
considerable degree of complexity, both in the design, but
also the operation. This is driven both by the sheer quan-
tity of equipment and the need to accommodate swings in
throughput between circuits based on sorted ore feed. Part
of the complication also relates to the push to exploit libera-
tion behaviours at coarser sizes. Although offering potential
improvements in design and recovery, the requirement to
process further for optimized recovery does not disappear
and, therefore, the finer treatment duty can be more com-
plex than usual, as the material remaining has had the more
amenable material removed earlier.
At the same time, performance of preconcentration
equipment, or methods, has improved significantly, with a
wider range of industrially applicable sensors, larger sorting
deployments, more advanced material analysis and faster
data processing. Some of the technical and technology
improvements, include:
Bulk Sorting
• Prompt Gamma Neutron Activation Analysis
(PGNAA)
– Improved data analysis duration and definition
of significance of data in relation to cut-of grade
(Sheehy, 2024)
– Combination with other sensors, i.e., magnetic
resonance in analysis of copper porphyries from
block caving (Cetin et al. 2023).
• Magnetic Resonance
– Deployment on conveyed material at a feed rate of
2800tph (NextOre, 2022)
– Truck scanning version developed (NextOre,
2023)
– Improved definition of applicability to mineral
types.
• Other
• Representivity of surface scanning has been exam-
ined and confirmed in specific cases.
Particle-Based Sorting
• Higher per sorter throughput
• Use of hybrid sensor systems
• Conical sorting machines
• Use of advanced algorithms, in combination with AI
and Machine Learning