Automated mineralogy system installed at NSW mine

Scientific equipment supplier AXT has announced the installation of a TESCAN TIMA automated mineralogy system at Northparkes Mines, a copper and gold mine located in Central West NSW. This marks the first mine site installation of an automated SEM-based minerals analysis system in Australia.

The TESCAN Integrated Mineral Analyzer (TIMA) uses a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a highly integrated energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX) system to perform full spectrum analyses at very fast speeds. This enables fully automated data collection, resulting in fast and reliable results. The product is able to characterise mineral abundance, size by size liberation, mineral association and grain size automatically on multiple samples.

The system will add high-resolution, automated mineralogy capabilities for advanced characterisation of process plant and geological samples to Northparkes’ on-site assay and metallurgical laboratory offerings. The automated data will be utilised in both a process plant and ore characterisation sense.

“This installation is a major advance as it takes the technology from the laboratory to the mine site,” said TESCAN TIMA Business Development Manager Paul Gottlieb. “The TIMA data can be analysed much more rapidly, resulting in faster fine-tuning of plant performance and increased productivity.”

In terms of production control and optimisation, the information from the product will be integrated with plant control variables to allow troubleshooting and optimisation of concentrator performance, resulting in improved production efficiency. Data will be used to support metallurgical optimisation projects, identify opportunities for improvement and justify plant changes. The instrument will also be used to support mining operations including resource model validation and optimisation.

“The benefits expected from the TIMA will apply to all areas of our business, including exploration, underground development and production, ore process control and marketing - all linking together to achieve our goal of greater efficiency,” said Northparkes Mines Manager Ore Processing Department Roslyn Dalton. “In particular, the TIMA will be a good fit for our existing metallurgical applications. The TIMA offering is developing and expanding and we are excited to be a part of that, including having user input into future software development.”