Automatic Sorting of Minerals

Abstract At present the minerals processing industry hardly takes advantage of the potential benefits of automatic sorting, which can be the saving of crushing and grinding costs, a better and more constant product quality and a change to an entirely dry process. Only in the processing of uranium ore, diamonds, recycle glass and scrap non-ferrous metals automatic sorting gained any significance. The technologies under investigation at Delft University of Technology have as objective to help overcome the remaining technical bottlenecks in automatic sorting. They include the development of better sensors for rapid material identification, independent of dust, coatings, moisture, size and shape. Examples are the development of the dual energy X-ray transmission and electromagnetic camera. Recent experimental progress will be presented and illustrated with as examples coal, ore and building waste sorting. Finally, economic aspects and plant integration are discussed.