The Record-Breaking Diamond Discovery: What’s Next for TOMRA?
For the umpteenth time, TOMRA Sorting’s X-ray Transmission technology has proven its groundbreaking efficacy – instrumental in a milestone diamond discovery. Recently, a 2,492-carat diamond was recovered at Karowe Diamond Mine in Botswana. Corné de Jager, TOMRA’s Diamond Segment Manager, fields questions from FIRST MINING DRC Zambia on this achievement and what TOMRA has set its sights on.
FMDZ: Seven discoveries above 1,000 carats in seven years. How do these record discoveries like the Karowe one make the technical support team at TOMRA feel?
CdJ: The day we found out our sorter recovered this record-breaking 2492 carat, each Tomra mining office made time to celebrate this incredible achievement. Whether it involves processing a spares order, picking the part in the storeroom, servicing the sorter, or giving technical on-site or back-up remote support, it was truly heartwarming to see all Tomra staff in all divisions, on all levels, smile and be proud of supporting our customer and contributing to historical achievements. There was definitely an encouraging and rewarding sense of team spirit, within Tomra and with our customer.
FMDRZ: There are several X-ray technologies in mineral recovery applications worldwide. What has made TOMRA’s flagship technology a ‘cut above the rest’ to be able to make record discoveries? Any unique features you can share with us if permissible?
CdJ: TOMRA’s state-of-the-art X-Ray Transmission (XRT), proprietary sensor and image processing, and extremely precise detection and ejection technology have proven to consistently deliver exceptionally high concentration factors and recovery rates. In high tonnage diamond concentration applications, we deliver recoveries greater than 98%.
XRT’s unique benefit is a 100% detection of all types of diamonds in the specified size range, irrespective of luminescence profile or coating. This consistent performance has proven to recover some of the world’s largest and rarest gems and has allowed diamond mines to revolutionise the entire process, from megasizes down to finer diamonds.
In diamond final recovery applications, the COM XRT 300/FR sorter has revolutionised this stage of the process to efficiently deliver recovery rates greater than 99% along with an ultra-high diamond-by-weight concentrate with yields as low as 0.05%. This in turn has created a unique proposition for the significant reduction of traditional final recovery stages, hand sorting, and security complications, with higher capacities than existing single particle sorters.
The benefits of TOMRA’s XRT technology are also evident in other mineral applications. For other commodities like gold, copper, and chromite, we’ve achieved recoveries above 95%.
We have three different sensors for standard XRT sorters. That gives us the possibility to find the best fit for each application.
The same for ejection valves; we have three different sizes for different size ranges. Ejections are extremely precise, and we can save up to 90% of air usage for fine material. That precision is not only important for diamonds, but also for other segments.
All in all, applying Tomra’s XRT technology as a bulk concentration step reduces the plant’s footprint and uses less power consumption compared to more conventional and water-intensive technologies. This contributes to lower CAPEX and OPEX per tonne costs.
FMDZ: Is there any role TOMRA’s support team can play to help end-users optimise the recovery process?
CdJ: TOMRA offers global remote support and onsite service from nearby geographically located offices. Global trends fast tracked the need for a connection between remote support and online data monitoring.
Thus, to meet this need, TOMRA Insight is a cloud-based solution that offers customers one secure, near real-time monitoring platform for all their sorting lines. With a web-based interface for desktop and mobile devices, customers can access digital metrics on the status and performance of their sorters whenever and wherever they want.
The connection between sorting lines and our cloud system enables a more proactive collaboration between customer staff, management, and TOMRA’s team of service experts. Data-driven insights by our support team often reveal areas for improvement even beyond the sorter for quick wins to improve recoveries, maximise throughputs, and reduce downtime.
FMDZ: We hear you are leveraging artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance recovery. Briefly share with us regarding this.
CdJ: The new Deep Learning feature, OBTAINTM enables us to sort even more precisely and to double capacities. OBTAINTM helps the machine to clearly identify individual rocks, even if clustered, and their position on the belt. This may sound simple, but due to this feature, the sorting efficiency is no longer linked to the capacity as with conventional sorting. The results are higher recoveries, lower yields (less over-sorting), and increased capacity. Each factor directly relates to the return on investment (ROI).
We are developing more Deep Learning features to launch soon. Those will open up more applications for sorting and lift detection possibilities to the next level. We foresee huge improvements in applications in metal ores and industrial minerals, which previously were not economically viable.
FMDZ: After the recent Karowe milestone, what’s next for TOMRA?
CdJ: We look forward to:
- Take Pilbara into full production to become truly the biggest Li sorting plant.
- Enable more lithium plants globally. Several are in the pipeline.
- Take sorting to a new level with more deep learning features to open up markets, which were previously not possible with sorting.
FMDZ: Anything else you would like to add on other projects and findings?
CdJ: We see ourselves as market makers. We empower our clients not only to succeed in their current markets but also to expand into new ones. Pilbara is home to the largest lithium sorting plant in the world, where sorting technology plays a pivotal role in the development of both the mine and the processing plant. We are proud that TOMRA sorters are a key enabling technology, driving efficiencies and unlocking new opportunities in the mining process.
