Tomra Mining’s advanced sorting technology will be used at Pilbara Minerals’ Pilangoora Operation, giving the plant a capacity of over 1,000 tonnes per hour. Tomra has specialised in designing and installing largescale ore-sorting plants.
Western Australia will now become home to the world's largest facility for lithium ore sorting. The facility will break new ground in hard-rock lithium processing, improving lithium recovery and increasing final product quality. This is part of Pilbara Minerals; P680 expansion project.
The project was delivered within budget and on schedule at the plant. This hinged on effective collaboration and coordination between Torma Mining, Pilbara Minerals and other companies involved in the process along with contractors.
Gavin Rech, area sales and technical manager Australia at Tomra Mining, said: “The success of this project is a testament to TOMRA Mining’s collaborative approach and capacity to deliver innovative, large-scale, high-capacity sorting solutions tailored to the unique demands of our clients, providing continuous support from the testing and design phases right through to installation, commissioning, and beyond. What’s more, the scale and success of this plant have demonstrated to the mining industry the benefits and capacity of sorting.”
Managing spodumene ore within barren host rocks is a challenge facing the lithium mining industry. These non-lithium-bearing materials reduce the efficiency of down streaming process. Tomra Mining employed its high-precision sensor-based sorting technology.
Efficiency is improved by removing barren materials, reducing energy consumption by 8 to 15 GWh annually whilst also ensuring consistent product quality.
Rech said: “The ore sorters enable a better utilisation of the resource as they remove contamination from the ore upstream. This means that the wet plant does not use energy, water, and reagents to process barren ore, and that the contamination doesn’t reduce the efficiencies and recovery of the downstream plant. In addition, our sorters’ high availability and efficiency ensure consistent quality feed for the processing plant.”
Tomra got involved in the project in 2017 starting with a geological assessment and bulk test work conducted at its Sydney Test Centre. After results validated the performance of the equipment, the formation of the base was then established.
A global team of specialists from across Australia, South Africa, Germany, and further were brought together to complete the project before its deadline. This ramped up operations and got the site ready.
On-site support will be available around the clock for the duration of the 24 month contract in place.
Rech added: “The global collaboration on this project has been an excellent demonstration of the core TOMRA value set of Passion, Innovation, and Responsibility.”
