Continuous Online Analysis for Base Metals Operations
GEOSCAN-M provides continuous online elemental analysis for base metal mining and processing operations, helping improve ore quality control, optimise blending and maximise plant performance. From mined ore through to plant feed, concentrates and final products, continuous analysis provides operators with timely information to better understand material variability and make informed process decisions.
Base metal operations depend on understanding ore grade, mineral variability and material consistency throughout the mining and processing flowsheet. Changes in valuable metal content, gangue chemistry, moisture and particle size can significantly affect recovery, concentrate quality, processing efficiency and profitability.
GEOSCAN-M continuously measures elemental composition across conveyed material, helping operators monitor valuable metals and key gangue components relevant to the orebody and process.
Combined with Scantech’s continuous online moisture and particle size analysis solutions, operators gain greater visibility across their operation, supporting improved recovery, product quality, resource utilisation and operational efficiency.
Consistent ore quality entering the processing plant is essential for maintaining stable operation, maximising recovery and achieving target throughput. Variations in valuable metal grade, gangue composition and ore type can affect grinding performance, reagent consumption, separation efficiency and final concentrate quality.
GEOSCAN-M continuously measures the elemental composition of conveyed plant feed, providing operators with timely information on changes in ore quality before material enters key processing stages. This allows feed variability to be identified earlier and provides greater opportunity to adjust blending, ore routing or plant operating conditions.
Continuous plant feed measurement also provides an important link between mine production and metallurgical performance, helping operators better understand the relationship between feed quality, recovery and plant efficiency while supporting improved metallurgical accounting and production planning.
Key Benefits
Improve plant feed consistency
Identify ore variability earlier
Improve process stability
Support metallurgical accounting
Optimise plant performance
Effective stockpile management and blending are important for delivering a consistent feed to base metal processing plants. Variations in grade and gangue composition between ore sources can create significant fluctuations in plant feed, affecting recovery, throughput and overall process stability.
GEOSCAN-M can continuously monitor material during stockpile building, reclaim and blending, providing operators with elemental information across the conveyed material stream. This enables stockpile quality to be better understood and allows blending strategies to be adjusted according to measured ore composition rather than relying only on periodic sampling.
More consistent blending can reduce variations entering the concentrator and provide downstream processes with a more stable feed. Continuous analysis can also help operators make better use of available ore sources, manage higher and lower grade material and maintain target feed quality over longer operating periods.
Key Benefits
Optimise ore blending
Improve stockpile consistency
Reduce feed variability
Maintain target plant feed quality
Improve downstream process stability
The performance of a base metal concentrator is strongly influenced by the quality and consistency of its feed. Changes in valuable metal grade, gangue chemistry and ore characteristics can affect crushing, grinding, flotation and other separation processes, resulting in variations in recovery, throughput and concentrate quality.
GEOSCAN-M provides continuous elemental measurement of conveyed concentrator feed, giving operators greater visibility of changes in ore composition as they occur. This information can be used alongside existing plant control systems to support adjustments to operating conditions when feed characteristics change.
By identifying variability before it significantly affects downstream processing, operators can maintain more stable plant conditions and improve the effectiveness of beneficiation and concentration stages. Continuous measurement can also assist with evaluating plant performance against feed quality, supporting process optimisation and improved recovery of valuable metals.
Key Benefits
Optimise concentrator feed
Improve process stability
Increase valuable metal recovery
Optimise plant throughput
Reduce process variability
Improve operational efficiency
Understanding how valuable metals and gangue components move through the processing plant is important for identifying recovery losses and improving overall metallurgical performance. Measuring only final feed and product streams can make it difficult to determine where changes in recovery or process efficiency are occurring.
GEOSCAN-M can be installed on suitable intermediate process conveyors to continuously measure elemental composition at key stages of the plant. Measurements of feed, intermediate products and reject streams provide operators with greater visibility of how material quality changes throughout the process.
Continuous measurement can help identify valuable metal losses to reject streams, evaluate the performance of individual processing stages and support site-wide elemental balances. This information allows plant personnel to identify process changes earlier and focus optimisation activities on areas where improvements can have the greatest impact on recovery and plant performance.
Key Benefits
Monitor valuable metal recovery
Identify metal losses
Evaluate individual process stages
Support elemental balances
Improve metallurgical accounting
Optimise overall plant performance
Maintaining consistent concentrate quality is essential for meeting customer or downstream processing requirements and maximising the commercial value of base metal products. Variations in valuable metal grade or unwanted elements can affect product specifications, treatment charges and downstream processing performance.
GEOSCAN-M can continuously monitor suitable concentrate and final product streams, providing operators with timely elemental information before material is stockpiled, blended or dispatched. Changes in product composition can therefore be identified earlier, allowing corrective action to be taken through process adjustment or blending.
Continuous product measurement complements laboratory analysis by providing greater visibility of quality across the conveyed material stream. It can also support metallurgical accounting, product blending and load-out control, helping operators maintain more consistent product quality and reduce the risk of material falling outside required specifications.
Key Benefits
Improve concentrate consistency
Verify product quality
Identify variability earlier
Optimise product blending
Support quality assurance
Reduce commercial risk
Moisture content can influence material handling, dry tonnage calculations, dewatering performance, metallurgical accounting and the commercial value of base metal concentrates and other products. Variations in moisture can also affect blending accuracy and the consistency of material moving through the processing plant.
Scantech’s ReadiMoist solutions provide continuous online moisture measurement on suitable ore, plant feed, intermediate and product conveyors. This gives operators a more representative understanding of moisture variation than periodic sampling alone and allows dry tonnes to be calculated more accurately.
Moisture measurement can also be applied following filtration or other dewatering processes to monitor product moisture and assist operators in optimising dewatering performance. When combined with continuous elemental analysis, moisture information provides a more complete understanding of material quality and quantity for process control, production reporting and metallurgical accounting.
Key Benefits
Improve moisture control
Improve dry tonne calculations
Optimise dewatering
Improve material handling
Improve metallurgical accounting
Support commercial transactions
Consistent particle size is important for efficient crushing, grinding and downstream mineral processing. Changes in crusher performance can produce excessive fines or oversize material, affecting plant throughput, energy consumption and the performance of subsequent processing equipment.
SizeScan provides continuous particle size distribution measurement on conveyed material and can be installed after crushing stages to monitor product sizing. This provides operators with ongoing information on crusher performance and allows changes in particle size to be identified without relying solely on periodic screening or manual sampling.
SizeScan can also provide foreign object detection, helping identify unwanted material that may damage crushers, mills or other downstream equipment. Continuous particle size information can therefore support crusher adjustment, improve downstream feed consistency and provide greater visibility of material entering grinding and concentration circuits.
Key Benefits
Monitor particle size distribution
Improve crusher performance
Detect oversize material
Identify foreign objects
Protect downstream equipment
Improve downstream feed consistency
Laboratory sampling and analysis remain important for detailed quality assurance and metallurgical testing. However, periodic samples only represent a small proportion of the total material processed and results are generally received after the material has already moved through the plant.
Continuous online analysis complements laboratory testing by measuring material directly on the conveyor as it moves through the operation.
This provides plant operators with timely information on changes in elemental composition, moisture and particle size, allowing process decisions to be made earlier and providing greater control over plant feed, recovery and final product quality.
Limitations of Traditional Laboratory Testing
Periodic sample analysis
Results delayed by sampling and preparation
Represents only a small portion of the material stream
Limited ability to respond quickly to process variability
Benefits of Continuous Online Analysis
Continuous measurement of conveyed material
Earlier identification of ore variability
Improved plant feed and blending control
Improved process stability and recovery
More consistent concentrate quality
Improved metallurgical accounting
Systems are used across a range of base metal applications, including copper, zinc, nickel, lead and polymetallic ores, depending on elemental measurement requirements.
No. Online systems provide continuous operational insight, while laboratory assays remain essential for verification, reporting and reconciliation. Analyser data is becoming increasingly accepted as a representative measurement of plant feed as all the conveyed material is sensed, making it ideal for ore reconciliation and metal accounting.
Installations are commonly positioned on run-of-mine conveyors, transfer points or concentrator feed belts, depending on process objectives. These conveyors can also be on in-pit conveyors, used in bulk ore sorting for preconcentration, or used on concentrate.
Continuous elemental data supports blending decisions and feed consistency, helping reduce variability entering milling and flotation circuits. Through bulk ore sorting the grade can be improved as waste material is removed from the feed stream. Reducing feed quality variability can affect metal recoveries by up to 10%.
Yes. Scantech analysers are engineered for continuous operation in demanding mining environments.
