TOMRA Mining XRT Installed at Saloro’s Tungsten Mine

Tungsten is considered a strategic commodity and is categorized as a “critical raw material” by the EU as it is an essential industrial metal with unique properties used in the production of hard metals, specialist steels and super alloys, as well as aerospace, electronics and military applications.The Saloro mine in Barruecopardo is one of the most important in Europe, and one of the few outside China that produces concentrate with high tungsten grade with limited impurities, making it a high-value product in the industry.

Saloro approached TOMRA Mining to explore ways to further improve the head grade to the processing plant: “We were looking for equipment capable of sorting ore with scheelite content in order to remove the non-mineralized product from the feed line,” said Pedro Jiménez, Plant Manager at the Barruecopardo mine.

TOMRA proposed its XRT ore sorter, which has the capability to identify fine high atomic dense tungsten inclusions with a detection technology developed in-house. “Our ‘Inclusions Technology’ is a perfect combination of a high-resolution XRT sensor with tailored sorting algorithms,” explains Carolina Vargas, Area Sales Engineer at TOMRA Mining. “At the Barruecopardo mine, this technology enables the detection of 1-mm or even smaller tungsten inclusions –This is unique in the market.”

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