Sensor-Based Sorting in Mining Industry: Selection of Appropriate Sensing Technologies for a Copper Deposit

Mining companies are increasingly turning to industry 4.0 to tackle economic challenges and to boost production efficiency. As one of the technological advances, sensor-based sorting systems (SBS) are increasingly used. It enables dry separation in early stage of raw material processing. The selection of appropriate sensing technologies is a vital aspect of implementing SBS systems, and there are not many research studies that treat the approach used to select the appropriate sensors; therefore, this paper demonstrates the selection of two combinations of sensors to pre-concentrate ore from a Moroccan copper deposit called Tizert. The approach used to select these combinations is based on analyzing the intersection between the detection principle of sensing technologies and preliminary geological and mineralogical characterization of the copper ore fragments. Results of this approach are two combinations of sensing techniques. The first is near-infrared spectroscopy combined with microwave treatment followed by infrared thermal imaging; this combination guarantees the detection of all copper-bearing minerals; the second combination is dual-energy X-ray transmission with X-ray fluorescence; it allows to detect valuable fragments and reduce surface-to-volume correlation errors as well as overcoming the resolution limitations of the XRT sensors. The strategy followed gives as result two combinations of sensors that allow researchers to concentrate at first on potential technologies.