With the growing challenge of decreasing orebody grades, which is only exacerbated by mass mining larger diluted mining blocks, the mining sector is now considering ore sorting as a potential technological solution. It is still early days, but major mining companies are starting to invest in research and development in this field. In particular, attention is turning toward bulk ore sorting, which can be matched up to mass mining techniques, having direct application to in-pit crushing and conveying.
This paper will explore the enablers for bulk ore sorting technology, including heterogeneity and amenability analyses, mineral sensing technology, and material routing / sorting. On the last, integration with IPCC for early waste rejection will be presented.
