X-Ray Scattering

Many thousands of tons of low-grade ore are incorrectly processed yearly consuming large amounts of energy, water and environmentally harmful chemicals, costing mines many millions of dollars yearly.

The Problem

In the mining industry large amounts of ore are mined from the ground on the assumption that the ore has a high grade of a valuable metal. For many metals being mined, there is currently no way to monitor whether the ore actually contains the valuable metal of interest at a high grade before processing it. To prevent low-grade ore from being incorrectly processed and help manage mines with declining ore grades, there is a need for new sensors in the mining industry that can measure the elemental or mineral content of bulk units of ore.

Our Solution

While there are many sensors that can be used to measure the surface of ore this is not useful for optimising processing of ore, as the surface only represents a very small fraction of the total ore. Bulk ore sensors can be used to sort ore, that is to sort the valuable high-grade ore from the non-valuable low-grade ore and only process the high grade ore. 

Collaborators

This project is lead by Brianna Ganly (MR) in collaboration with Jack McIlquham (MR) and Yves Van Haarlem (MR) and is supported by Postdoctoral Fellow Bryan Pi Ern Tee (MR).