By taking advantage of the natural variations within orebodies, Anglo American says it can identify and reject gangue (waste rock) close to the mine face. This means that it can reduce its energy intensity by more than 10%, as less reject gangue is being processed in its plants. This is the rationale behind its Bulk Sorting project that in turn forms part of its FutureSmart Mining™ approach to innovation and sustainability.

Today, the company says it has a full-scale demonstration facility installed and running at the El Soldado copper mine in Chile, with two more units scheduled for delivery by mid-2019. The system is thought to include a grizzly, feeder, sizer, conveyors & associated equipment from MMD, used in conjunction with an ore scanning system. One option being trialled is pulsed fast thermal neutron activation (PFTNA) technology from Malvern Panalytical, deployed on one of its CNA online cross belt analysers.