418 XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3
CONCLUSION
The Kansanshi BOS program is a significant milestone in
the development of sensor-based BOS technology. This
scale of sensor-based on-conveyor BOS has not previ-
ously been documented and is believed to be the largest
installation of its kind. The BOS system has been proven
to operate effectively at a rate of 2,800 tonnes per hour,
delivering measurable levels of ore grade preconcentration
and demonstrating the potential for this technology to be
successfully deployed at the scale of typical medium and
large copper mines.
The validation methodology used for the Kansanshi
BOS program is also considered to be a world first. This
illustrate the range of potential bulk ore sorting outcomes,
MRA grade data is collected for a period and a range of
sorting cut-off grades applied, with mass and metal recov-
eries calculated for the data set. This allows the BOS to
be optimised continually to suit the characteristics the sur-
rounding operation.
Results of this analysis for a one-month aggregate
period are shown in Figure 15. The results are contextual-
ised by comparing with “Excellent,” “Good,” “Moderate”
and “Poor” results observed by NextOre either in other
BOS installations or in heterogeneity study results for other
mining projects and mining operations conducted previ-
ously by NextOre and CSIRO.
Figure 13. MRA trailing average grades (16 seconds and 1 hour) and sample assay grades
Figure 14. Time series MRA grade data showing example of typical grade fluctuation observed over a 24-hour period. Note
that the chart shows an average grade of 4× MRA measurements, each of 4 second intervals, to more easily visualise the data
CONCLUSION
The Kansanshi BOS program is a significant milestone in
the development of sensor-based BOS technology. This
scale of sensor-based on-conveyor BOS has not previ-
ously been documented and is believed to be the largest
installation of its kind. The BOS system has been proven
to operate effectively at a rate of 2,800 tonnes per hour,
delivering measurable levels of ore grade preconcentration
and demonstrating the potential for this technology to be
successfully deployed at the scale of typical medium and
large copper mines.
The validation methodology used for the Kansanshi
BOS program is also considered to be a world first. This
illustrate the range of potential bulk ore sorting outcomes,
MRA grade data is collected for a period and a range of
sorting cut-off grades applied, with mass and metal recov-
eries calculated for the data set. This allows the BOS to
be optimised continually to suit the characteristics the sur-
rounding operation.
Results of this analysis for a one-month aggregate
period are shown in Figure 15. The results are contextual-
ised by comparing with “Excellent,” “Good,” “Moderate”
and “Poor” results observed by NextOre either in other
BOS installations or in heterogeneity study results for other
mining projects and mining operations conducted previ-
ously by NextOre and CSIRO.
Figure 13. MRA trailing average grades (16 seconds and 1 hour) and sample assay grades
Figure 14. Time series MRA grade data showing example of typical grade fluctuation observed over a 24-hour period. Note
that the chart shows an average grade of 4× MRA measurements, each of 4 second intervals, to more easily visualise the data