As an important mineral resource in my country, the efficient development and utilization of phosphate ore is crucial to the chemical industry, agriculture and other fields. However, in the process of phosphate mining and beneficiation, there are often a lot of low-grade ores and waste rocks mixed together, which contain high-value phosphate resources. However, due to the limitations of traditional sorting technology, high-grade phosphate ore cannot be accurately identified and extracted, resulting in resource waste, increasing the pressure of solid waste treatment, and posing a potential threat to the ecological environment.

How to make green and efficient comprehensive utilization of phosphate ore and associated resources has become the key to restricting the efficiency growth and sustainable development of many mining companies. A large phosphate mining company in Hubei recently joined hands with MINGDER to submit an innovative solution to the problem of efficient sorting of phosphate ore resources at the local phosphate base.

Waste rock contains high-grade phosphate ore

The traditional sorting process is inefficient

The company is a comprehensive group integrating phosphate mining, deep processing and resource recovery, and has invested in the construction of a modern phosphate base in the southwest. The geological conditions in the mining area are complex, and the ore and waste rock are closely interwoven, making it difficult to achieve accurate separation with traditional sorting technology. Through chemical analysis of the waste rock in the mining area, the content of high-grade phosphate ore in the waste rock is more than 30%. In the past, after the ore was initially processed by the beneficiation plant, qualified phosphate concentrate entered the finished product warehouse, while the waste rock relied on manual hand selection to recover large pieces of phosphate ore. Although some resources can be recovered, manual sorting is inefficient and costly, and can no longer meet the needs of intelligent upgrading of mines.

Disadvantages of manual sorting:

The environment of manual sorting is harsh, with dust pollution, high labor intensity and safety hazards, which does not meet the requirements of the "Green Development Specifications for Mineral Resources".

Only large pieces of ore with a particle size of more than 50 mm can be sorted, and small and medium-sized particles of phosphate ore cannot be effectively recovered, and the resource utilization rate is less than 40%.

The low sorting accuracy leads to a large amount of high-grade phosphate ore mixed in the waste rock, and the amount of solid waste treatment remains high, wasting more than one million tons of resources each year.

The backward technology makes it difficult to adapt to the trend of intelligent and automated upgrading of mines, which restricts the improvement of corporate economic benefits.

To solve the above problems, the company decided to introduce MINGDER artificial intelligence sorting machine to upgrade the sorting system. After multiple rounds of technical demonstration and test comparison, 3 sets MINGDER AI intelligent sorting machines were finally deployed.

AI algorithm + spectral analysis dual-core drive

Break through the bottleneck of phosphate ore sorting technology

Phosphate ore and associated waste rock have slight differences in density, composition and spectral characteristics, and traditional methods are difficult to accurately distinguish. MINGDER developed a customized sorting solution based on the characteristics of phosphate ore, using AI intelligent algorithm and high-precision spectral analysis dual system to achieve a double breakthrough in sorting efficiency and accuracy.

In the sorting process, after the ore is pre-screened, the 10mm-50mm particle size raw materials enter the AI sorting machine. Through real-time spectral scanning and AI model analysis, the system can quickly identify phosphate ore and waste rock. After sorting, the purity of phosphate concentrate is increased to more than 25%, and the phosphorus content of tailings is reduced to less than 5%. The processing capacity of a single machine reaches 50t/h, which significantly improves the efficiency of resource recovery.

Benefit analysis:

The sorting accuracy and recovery rate have been greatly improved, the grade of phosphate concentrate has reached the industry-leading level, and the annual economic benefits have exceeded 20 million yuan.

The waste rock treatment volume has been reduced by 40%, saving about 8 million yuan in solid waste disposal costs each year, while reducing environmental governance costs.

The whole process is free of chemical agents, which meets the requirements of green mine construction and helps achieve the "dual carbon" goals.

Replace manual sorting, improve the working environment, reduce the risk of safety accidents, and promote the intelligent transformation of mines.

The technical solution has been recognized by the industry, attracting many companies to inspect and cooperate, forming a demonstration effect.

The successful application of MINGDER artificial intelligence sorting machine marks that phosphate ore sorting technology has entered a new stage of intelligence. In the future, MINGDER will continue to innovate, provide scientific and technological support for the efficient development and sustainable development of mineral resources, and help ensure the security of national strategic resources.