Commercial Ore Sorting

> Ore Sorting Overview

Ore sorting solutions
APPLICATIONS
Ore sorting is a process for upgrading mineral bearing rock
at large particle sizes, typically between 250mm and 10mm
and involves evaluating the mineral content of individual
rocks as they pass through a sensor then separating them
into Accept and Reject fractions, based on pre-determined
selection criteria. Ore Sorting requires a property specific to
an ore to be sensed and then optimised for each applica-
tion.
Depending on the particle size range of the material being
treated ore sorting machines can operate at throughput
rates up to 200 tonnes per hour per machine
It is possible to adjust machine sensitivity and the cut-off
grade for the accept / reject split. This fine tuning gives
flexibility to operating requirements e.g. high upgrade
ratios or maximum recoveries.
The crushed rock or gravel is screened into size ranges.
Sorting devices work most efficiently when the size of the
largest particles is no greater than two or three times the
size of the smallest particle and there may be number of
ore sorters in the process plant treating different size
fractions.
INDUCTION SORTING
Diagram of a STEINERT
ISS Sorting System
- increases the
range of possibilities
for sorting mixed materials
METHODOLOGY
Typically, automated sorting systems comprise:-
1. Material feed bin
2. Vibratory feeder
3. Free fall or mechanical acceleration
4. Sensor
5. Data processing
6. Air compressor
7. Air pressure valves - pneumatic nozzles
8. Accept stream
9. Reject stream
10. Network interface for central control
Following screening, the material is spread evenly on a
conveyor or inclined chute and passed through a zone where
properties of the rock, either natural or induced, are sensed.
These properties most often involve low-level radioactivity
or some property of light, such as reflectance or fluores-
cence, and other characteristics. For example; diamonds
fluoresce when bombarded by x-rays, common salt reflects
much light, uranium ores give off gamma rays, and x-ray
absorption is directly proportional to atomic density. If a rock
particle shows a high enough level of the sensed property, it
is physically separated from the moving stream of rock
usually by means of a powerful air blast, or an air operated
flap.
These identify-and-flick processes all happen in millisec-
onds and computers are essential to automated sorting.
Typical sorting systems process material at rates of 500 to
1000 particles each second. Automated sorting is highly
ore-specific, with different treatments needed for different
minerals, and not all ores can be sorted with today's
technology.
The system illustrated below senses some property of each
rock as it passes through the sorter sensors and uses high-
speed digital processing to determine the amount of the
desired mineral, then according to a pre-determined
parameter accepts or rejects the particle.
Amenability to
pre-concentration
For any form of pre-concentration to work, liberation of
valuable minerals from the waste or gangue must occur
easily during the crushing process. If the valuable mineral Fig 1
is finely disseminated throughout the ore, sorting or other Coarse composite minerals
methods of preconcentration may not be possible as it is
necessary to reduce the ore to a size outside the range of
coarse pre-concentration devices to liberate the valuable
mineral from the gangue.

Here are examples of coarse mineral composites (Fig 1),

and a finely disseminated ore (Fig 2) which illustrate this.

Fig 2
Finely disseminated minerals

X-RAY
The STEINERT XSS
X-Ray Sorting System - Dual Energy
system to determine material
density while overcoming the
effects of thickness and shape

INDUCTION
The STEINERT ISS Sorting System -
separates mineral ores from
gangue to recover valuable metals
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