Real-time ore sorting using color and texture analysis

Sensor-based ore sorting is a technology used to classify high-grade mineralized rocks from low-grade waste rocks to reduce operation costs.Many ore-sorting algorithms using color images have been proposed in the past,but only some validate their results using mineral grades or optimize the algorithms to classify rocks in real-time.This paper presents an ore-sorting algorithm based on image processing and machine learning that is able to classify rocks from a gold and silver mine based on their grade.The algorithm is composed of four main stages:(1)image segmentation and partition,(2)color and texture feature extraction,(3)sub-image classification using neural networks,and(4)a voting system to determine the overall class of the rock.The algorithm was trained using images of rocks that a geologist manually classified according to their mineral content and then was validated using a different set of rocks analyzed in a laboratory to determine their gold and silver grades.The proposed method achieved a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.961 points,higher than other classification algorithms based on support vector machines and convolutional neural networks,and a processing time under 44 ms,promising for real-time ore sorting applications.

A review of intelligent ore sorting technology and equipment development

Under the background of increasingly scarce ore worldwide and increasingly fierce market competition,developing the mining industry could be strongly restricted.Intelligent ore sorting equipment not only improves ore use and enhances the economic benefits of enterprises but also increases the ore grade and lessens the grinding cost and tailings production.However,long-term research on intelligent ore sorting equipment found that the factors affecting sorting efficiency mainly include ore information identification technology,equipment sorting actuator,and information processing algorithm.The high precision,strong anti-interference capability,and high speed of these factors guarantee the separation efficiency of intelligent ore sorting equipment.Color ore sorter,X-ray ore transmission sorter,dual-energy X-ray transmission ore sorter,X-ray fluorescence ore sorter,and near-infrared ore sorter have been successfully developed in accordance with the different characteristics of minerals while ensuring the accuracy of equipment sorting and improving the equipment sorting efficiency.With the continuous improvement of mine automation level,the application of online element rapid analysis technology with high speed,high precision,and strong anti-interference capability in intelligent ore sorting equipment will become an inevitable trend of equipment development in the future.Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy,transientγneutron activation analysis,online Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy,and nuclear magnetic resonance techniques will promote the development of ore sorting equipment.In addition,the improvement and joint application of additional high-speed and high-precision operation algorithms(such as peak area,principal component analysis,artificial neural network,partial least squares,and Monte Carlo library least squares methods)are an essential part of the development of intelligent ore sorting equipment in the future.

A Bayesian hierarchical model for the inference between metal grade with reduced variance:Case studies in porphyry Cu deposits

Ore sorting is a preconcentration technology and can dramatically reduce energy and water usage to improve the sustainability and profitability of a mining operation.In porphyry Cu deposits,Cu is the primary target,with ores usually containing secondary‘pay’metals such as Au,Mo and gangue elements such as Fe and As.Due to sensing technology limitations,secondary and deleterious materials vary in correlation type and strength with Cu but cannot be detected simultaneously via magnetic resonance(MR)ore sorting.Inferring the relationships between Cu and other elemental abundances is particularly critical for mineral processing.The variations in metal grade relationships occur due to the transition into different geological domains.This raises two questions-how to define these geological domains and how the metal grade relationship is influenced by these geological domains.In this paper,linear relationship is assumed between Cu grade and other metal grades.We applies a Bayesian hierarchical(partial-pooling)model to quantify the linear relationships between Cu,Au,and Fe grades from geochemical bore core data.The hierarchical model was compared with two other models-‘complete-pooling’model and‘nopooling’model.Mining blocks were split based on spatial domain to construct hierarchical model.Geochemical bore core data records metal grades measured from laboratory assay with spatial coordinates of sample location.Two case studies from different porphyry Cu deposits were used to evaluate the performance of the hierarchical model.Markov chain Monte Carlo(MCMC)was used to sample the posterior parameters.Our results show that the Bayesian hierarchical model dramatically reduced the posterior predictive variance for metal grades regression compared to the no-pooling model.In addition,the posterior inference in the hierarchical model is insensitive to the choice of prior.The data is wellrepresented in the posterior which indicates a robust model.The results show that the spatial domain can be successfully utilised for metal grade regression.Uncertainty in estimating the relationship between pay metals and both secondary and gangue elements is quantified and shown to be reduced with partial-pooling.Thus,the proposed Bayesian hierarchical model can offer a reliable and stable way to monitor the relationship between metal grades for ore sorting and other mineral processing options.