TOMRA Mining XRT Technology Exceeds Expectations

QMAG’s Kunwarara deposit of cryptocrystalline magnesite in Central Queensland Australia began using TOMRA’s X-Ray Transmission technology in 2016 when a TOMRA XRT sorter was installed on site. “It was a success story: we could now process very high calcium content material that we couldn’t do as effectively with the DMS or laser sorting equipment. This gave the ability to produce much lower calcium content magnesite grades suitable for our customers,” said Alex Padya, Process Engineer at the QMAG mine.

In 2018 the XRT machine was moved into the sorting plant. “With this decision, we halved our heavy media usage in that part of the circuit and went to a standalone XRT circuit,” added Josh Dawson, Production Superintendent at the QMAG mine. The TOMRA XRT sorter has exceeded expectations continued Josh, “When we originally made the business case, we thought that it would be used to upgrade the lower quality magnesite ores to produce grades suitable for agricultural purposes, while the heavy media cyclones would make our lower silica materials for other applications. However, by collaborating with TOMRA to optimize the performance of the XRT unit, we can now turn agricultural products into much higher grades required by the Parkhurst processing plant.”

QMAG has updated its plant replacing the 6-year-old unit with a new TOMRA XRT sorter. In addition, a second unit has now been added to further increase production.

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