Posted by Paul Moore on sixth September 2022

Growing a greener mining business has been a high precedence worldwide lately, together with in China. Molybdenum miner Luanchuan Hengyu Mining Co Ltd  (Hengyu Mining) was established in 2006 and at the moment mines about 1.45 Mt/y of rock from open pit mining. It additionally produces sand and gravel mixture from the waste. Hengyu Mining has a confirmed molybdenum steel reserve of 76,300 t. The ore is a porphyry, with molybdenite and pyrite as the primary metallic minerals and feldspar and quartz because the non-metallics.

Since its institution in Luoyang, Henan Province, Hengyu Mining has adhered to the environmental safety precept that “clear waters and inexperienced mountains are as useful as gold and silver mountains.” In observe this contains an consciousness that an environmentally pleasant mine must not solely embody land reclamation and afforestation but in addition complete useful resource utilisation, discount in power use, and environmental safety.

Hengyu Mining has additionally been actively searching for superior expertise for extra environment friendly growth of its mineral sources – exploring options that may enhance its manufacturing course of. In 2021, after inspection and design by HPY Sorting Expertise’s group of consultants, Hengyu Mining modified its authentic ore sorting technique by including HPY Sorting Expertise’s XRT-based clever ore sorting tools for the pre-rejection course of. HPY is predicated in in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, and is considered one of China’s main suppliers of ore sorting expertise.

The molybdenum ore is penetrated by X-rays, imaged by machine imaginative and prescient, and judged by synthetic intelligence to assist determine what is taken into account useable ore and waste rock. As soon as the machine has recognized useable ore and waste rock, they’re sorted with high-pressure compressed air that kinds the ore and waste rock into two separate belts that carry every sorted materials to the subsequent step within the beneficiation course of.

Investing round $1.45 million, Hengyu Mining constructed an clever ore sorting plant consisting of 4 sensor-based ore sorting machines, utilizing HPY Sorting Expertise’s The Circle Sequence (mannequin C1500) for pre-selecting molybdenum ore and rejecting waste rock.

“The unique design capability of our plant was 5,000 t/d. After the technical modification with 4 HPY The Circle Sequence models, the processing capability was elevated to about 8,000 t/d. Our uncooked ore grade is comparatively low – about 0.05% when it enters the sorting machine. After processing by means of the HPY The Circle Sequence, the focus grade improves by a mean of 0.03% to 0.08%. The restoration fee has additionally elevated to 85%,” in response to Mr Feng, the Manufacturing Technical Supervisor of Hengyu Mining.

HPY’s clever ore sorting expertise permits Hengyu Mining to reject waste rock upfront with out utilizing water or different strategies. Through the use of sensor-based ore sorting machines early within the beneficiation course of, it helps scale back the consumption of water, electrical energy, and supplies downstream, whereas additionally reducing manufacturing prices, producing much less strong waste, and enhancing financial effectivity. Furthermore, waste rock might be utilised to supply sand and gravel mixture. With the clever ore sorting course of, Hengyu Mining has dramatically elevated its mineral useful resource utilisation fee and decreased its greenhouse gasoline emissions. It’s at the moment within the strategy of searching for recognition as a ‘Nationwide Inexperienced Mine.’

Annual financial advantages of roughly $6.33 million are achieved by utilizing HPY Sorting Expertise’s clever ore sorting tools. The manufacturing capability has elevated from 5,000 t/d to eight,000 t/d (consisting of 5,000 t of ore for additional ball mill processing and three,000 t of waste rock that will probably be primarily utilised as sand and gravel mixture). 4 units of The Circle Sequence ore clever sorting tools can present a most annual output of 900,000 t of waste rock. Early rejection of waste rock leads to 280 t extra molybdenum steel produced yearly, saving 18,000,000 kWh of electrical energy value $2.1 million.

The Circle Sequence HPY Sorting Expertise says is the world’s first ring-shaped structured clever ore sorting machine. With a singular circle construction, The Circle Sequence contains a tremendous massive processing capability (as much as 300 th) and an ultra-small measurement, with the fashions starting from 14.8-32 m2, and a processing grain measurement of 5 to 90 mm.

Utilizing superior clever XRT sorting expertise and aerial imaging expertise, the picture high quality of the machine HPY says is improved by 30% in comparison with earlier generations of ore sorting machines. The AI calculation capability has been elevated by 400%, processing over 10,000 ore particles per second.

The separation system makes use of high-speed multi-row air jets with a single nozzle diameter of two mm. The AI algorithm can intelligently handle the jet air stream primarily based on the grain measurement of the ore, so even a 5 mm particle might be hit precisely. The machine additionally options the HPY Cloud Platform: with an clever on-line cloud monitoring system, the operator can monitor the operation standing from wherever in actual time. The Circle Sequence can also be simple to take care of as a result of its distinctive circle construction.