Decarbonising mining and mineral extraction with intelligent in-line sensors

Mining operations for mineralogical extraction underpins almost every aspect of the global economy. Product manufacture, and the services which depend upon them, would not exist without these raw materials. Despite a global shift towards sustainability, the carbon footprint associated with mining and, particularly, onward material processing accounts for a significant proportion og global emissions. For example, crushing of rocks into a fine powder suitable for onward chemical ore extraction accounts for an enormous 8% of global energy consumption. The economics and processes associated with such processing preclude real-time measurement of the mineralogical content of rocks extracted from the earth, and so a very large amount of energy is needlessly consumed in processing rock of little mineralogical or commercial value. We propose an in-line state-of-the art sensor system which would give plant operators access to mineralogical content information with unprecedented speed and accuracy, Such technology would allow uneconomic spoil to be rejected early on in the processing cycle, thus conferring significant efficiency improvements on plant operators and enormous reductions in CO2 emissions associated with this industry.