Интеллектуальная технология сухой сортировки повышает эффективность сортировки руды

In the mining industry, ore sorting, also known as beneficiation, ore processing, or mineral processing, is a crucial core process. The primary goal is to convert the extracted raw ore into higher economic value concentrate, while separating and removing useless gangue minerals.

The main objectives of ore sorting include:

Improving Ore Grade

Typically, raw ore contains a large amount of unnecessary rocks, soil, and other low-value or useless minerals. By using оборудование для сортировки руды, through physical, chemical, or physico-chemical methods, the useful minerals can be concentrated during the sorting process. This significantly increases the content or quality of valuable elements or useful minerals (such as coal or industrial minerals) in the concentrate. Since the concentrate is far more valuable than the raw ore, it meets the quality requirements for subsequent smelting or direct use.

Reducing Transportation and Processing Costs

• The volume of raw ore is enormous and contains a lot of waste rock. By removing the waste rock at the mine or nearby sorting plant, the amount of material that needs to be transported over long distances is greatly reduced, saving substantial transportation costs.
• Subsequent processes such as smelting and chemical treatments are often charged by tonnage or are energy-intensive. Reducing the total amount of material to be processed can significantly lower costs and energy consumption for these downstream operations.

Enhancing Efficiency and Economics of Subsequent Smelting/Processing

• High-grade concentrates react more fully and quickly in the smelting furnace, improving metal recovery rates.
• Reducing the amount of useless gangue during smelting lowers fuel consumption, flux usage, and slag generation.
• Some harmful impurities (such as sulfur, arsenic, phosphorus, etc.) are partially removed during the sorting process, alleviating environmental pressures and reducing refining and purification costs.

Comprehensive Recovery of Useful Minerals

Many ore bodies contain multiple valuable minerals. Through different processing flows during the sorting process, coexisting valuable minerals can be separately concentrated and recovered (e.g., recovering molybdenum, gold, and silver from copper ore; recovering lead concentrate and zinc concentrate from lead-zinc ore). This maximizes resource utilization and enhances the overall economic benefit of the mine.

Reducing Environmental Impact

• Reducing Tailings: By effectively sorting and removing large amounts of waste rock using intelligent dry separator, the volume of tailings generated and needing storage is significantly reduced. This alleviates pressure on land use, tailings dam construction, maintenance, and the risk of dam failure.
• Reducing Harmful Emissions: Intelligent sorting can remove some acidic minerals or other harmful elements, reducing the risk of these substances entering the tailings storage or subsequent smelting processes, thereby lowering the risk of acid mine drainage and toxic gas/dust emissions.
• Lowering Overall Energy Consumption and Carbon Footprint: As previously mentioned, reducing transportation and processing volumes results in lower energy consumption and carbon emissions.

Increasing the Value of Low-Grade Ore Bodies

Some ore bodies have low raw ore grades, making direct mining, transportation, and smelting too costly to be profitable. Effective sorting technology can concentrate these low-grade ores into high-grade concentrates, turning resources that would otherwise not be economically viable into extractable ones, thus extending the life of the mine.

Ore Pre-Sorting

The sorting process typically includes steps such as crushing and screening, where the ore is classified by particle size. Ores with different particle sizes or mineral compositions may require different sorting methods (for example, coarse particles may use gravity separation, while fine particles may use flotation). Pre-sorting helps optimize the efficiency of subsequent sorting processes.

Ore sorting is a battle of “extracting gold from waste rock.” It’s not just about separation; it represents a profound shift in the mining industry from resource-consuming to technology-driven operations. The new generation of domestic technology equipment, represented by the Интеллектуальный сухой сепаратор Obote, is opening the door to “source-based efficiency and green production” for mining companies through the collaborative innovation of five major systems: feeding, identification, execution, control, and environmental protection.