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Mining
Special Report: Australian startup NextOre has confirmed its position as a global leader in mining technology by unveiling a step change in its solution to a looming critical mineral supply gap.
NextOre’s OG3 is the world’s first magnetic resonance enabled bulk ore sorting system for use over underground copper mine haul trucks. The new analyser offers further cost and emissions savings by enabling powerful and real time ore measurement closer to the source of the ore.
Copper is essential to the clean energy transition and a wide array of modern communications devices.
BHP has forecast that demand will grow about 70% to over 50Mt per annum by 2050, while many of the world’s copper operations face declining grades due to their maturity.
For a sector seeking to improve recoveries and efficiencies, NextOre has applied the same highly penetrative technology used in MRIs to ore sorting.
Its analysers rapidly determine ore grade, enabling cost-effective sorting of valuable minerals from waste.
This in turn allows miners to make significant reductions in fuel, water and chemical consumption by removing barren material devoid of valuable metals early in the process.
It additionally cuts the quantity of wet tailings produced for each tonne of valuable material, providing even more cost savings and sustainability improvements.
The OG3 expands NextOre’s OGX range made for mobile mining equipment like trucks and front end loaders. OG stands for open geometry, with the X denoting the stated diameter of the sensor.
The 3m wide unit that resembles a high-tech donut was initially developed by the CSIRO and has been specifically sized for use with underground haul trucks. Other key enhancements include ruggedisation for the harsher underground environments and improved efficiency in crane positioning.
NextOre CEO Chris Beal said: “Our goal has been to ensure that the sensor is easy to install, simple to operate, and provides fast, actionable insights.”
Thanks to its ability to analyse the grade of up to 50 tonnes of material in under a minute, the analyser can offer reductions in operational costs and environmental impacts to its conveyor belt counterpart.
Benefits include:
“In the current economic climate, with traditional large-scale capital expansion projects becoming less viable, operators are looking for smarter, lower-risk solutions that deliver immediate value,” Beal said.
“Our latest MR analyser, the OG3, provides a powerful, real-time tool that enables underground mines to optimise ore movement, reduce waste and improve overall productivity without the need for costly infrastructure upgrades.”
NextOre grew out of a CSIRO R&D project from which the technology was commercialised for sensors to be used over conveyor belts, with that application still offering improvements for the industry.
Chief Operating Officer Shivika Singh said: “The technology we use in all our OGX analysers is a leap forward from the conventional ion-radiation scanning systems used in mining –providing accurate, bulk grade measurements with higher speeds, accuracy and safety without relying on ionising radiation.”
The first deployment of the OG3 sensor is expected in an underground mine in New South Wales this year. Initially the unit will be used for 30 to 50 tonne mine trucks, but it could eventually expand to load-haul-dump bucket loads to bring more efficiencies to underground operations.
NextOre is also expanding its footprint globally, with successful MR analyser installations in high-capacity operations such as First Quantum Minerals’ Kansanshi copper mine in Zambia and a large-scale 6500t/h conveyor application in Chile.
The company is additionally researching how it can apply its technology beyond copper.
This article was developed in collaboration with NextOre, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
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