Luke Balzan, Luke Balzan, Andrew Harris, Zoran Bauk
49th Annual Conference of Metallurgists, Vancouver, Canada, August 27-30, 2017.
Abstract
Real-time, on-belt analysis of minerals is becoming increasingly important and critical in modern operations, especially in the mine-to-mill. Prompt gamma neutron activation analysis has long been used for real-time elemental analysis in bulk materials, with Scantech’s Geoscan being the instrument of choice in the minerals sector. Working in the minerals space for 15 years, the Geoscan has been successfully implemented in a wide range of minerals applications, including iron, copper, lead-zinc, manganese, and phosphate, and it caters to the very high demands and increasing requirements of a contemporary processing facility. An area of focus has been on increasing the analysis frequency to allow for rapid analysis results with the same high degree of accuracy typically expected of the Geoscan. This paper discusses the underlying research and technology that has enabled such rapid analysis and presents a range of examples using a thorough statistical approach on real production material, demonstrating achievable accuracy over a short analysis time, and dispelling common myths about the speed of the technique. Potential applications are discussed to conclude the paper.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CEEC acknowledges and thanks the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM), the Metallury and Materials Society (MetSoc) and organising committee for organising the COM 2017 Conference of Metallurgists hosting World Gold and Nickel-Cobalt.
Abstracts can be found at the CIM website (http://web.cim.org/com2017/conference/SessionPapers.cfm#).
Full papers published in the Conference Proceedings will be available on onemine.org, and CEEC directs readers to http://www.onemine.org/ to access and purchase published papers.