Following the opening of its new subsidiary, Xore now announces the first business to Norway.
“Over the last few years we have noticed an increasing interest from leaching plants and smelter operations. But lately we have seen them move from being interested in the technology to discussing how to apply it in their plants, and actually talking about investing. And it is one of these clients that now has put an order for a Boxray Compact on-stream analyser”, says Mikael Normark, CEO of Xore.
Boxray Compact is an analyser that can be equipped with sampling systems for slurry or solutions. This client only has liquid samples, no slurries. Highly corrosive samples, like electrolyte or cyanide leaching solutions, is not a problem, not even in combination with high temperatures.
“Our oldest analyser in this type of application is from 2001, and it is still in operation” says Normark. “We have had occasional business in this area since then. This year we will deliver two analysers to this type of client. The first one is installed next month and this one will be delivered in the fall. Given the interest from different parts of the world we think it is only the beginning of a new trend. Smelters and leaching plants are definitively going for on-line analysis now”.
With online analysis leaching plants and smelters are to be able to track material concentration in different steps of the process. With manual analysis it can take hours to find out, and by that time developments have continued even further. On-line analysis is a tool to spot trends early, which gives the operators time to fix the issues without putting on the brakes in production. This evens out dips in productivity, thereby raising the productivity over time.
For smelters it is a great way to monitor metal content in electrolyte. Keeping the metal content within a tighter window is a good way to improve productivity.
For leaching plants with recirculation of solutions it is a good way to monitor and predict material buildup in certain process stages. Online analysis helps them by enabling calculation of real time mass balance.