Q&A with Corné de Jager, TOMRA Mining
Published by Will Owen,
Editor
Global Mining Review,
Global Mining Review presents a Q&A with Corné de Jager, Diamond Segment Manager at TOMRA Mining, discussing TOMRA’s involvement in Investing in African Mining Indaba Exhibition 2025.
What makes Mining Indaba important to the mining industry?
This premier event offers the perfect platform to bring together government leaders, key industry key players, and investors for networking on advanced technologies, sustainable mining practices, and investment opportunities in African mining projects. With a focus on developing long-term economic growth and sustainability, it offers perfect opportunities to help shape Africa’s Mining future.
How is TOMRA participating?
From 3 – 6 February, TOMRA is at the Investing in African Mining Indaba Exhibition in Cape Town, South Africa, in the German Hall, Booth R 30-16.
Stop by to meet our professionals, Albert du Preez, Kai Bartram, Helga van Lochem, and myself (Corné de Jager).
TOMRA Mining pride itself on leading the way in sensor-based sorting technology that aligns with the goals of this event – to help shape the future of mining with more economically and environmentally sustainable solutions.
Tell us about your X-Ray Transmission technology
TOMRA is a trusted world leader in automated sorting systems, partnering with customers long-term to unlock value from mines, separating valuable ores from waste rock efficiently and sustainably.
TOMRA’s state-of-the-art X-Ray Transmission (XRT), proprietary sensor and image processing, and extremely precise detection and ejection technology have proven to consistently deliver exceptionally high concentration factors and recovery rates. In high tonnage diamond concentration applications, we deliver recoveries greater than 98%. XRT’s unique benefit is a 100% detection of all types of diamonds in the specified size range, irrespective of luminescence profile or coating. This consistent performance has proven to recover some of the world’s largest and rarest gems and has allowed diamond mines to revolutionise the entire process, from megasizes down to finer diamonds.
The benefits of TOMRA’s XRT technology are also evident in other mineral applications. For other commodities like gold, copper, and chromite, we’ve achieved recoveries above 95%.
We have three different sensors for standard XRT sorters. That gives us the possibility to find the best fit for each application.
The same for ejection valves; we have three different sizes for different size ranges. Ejections are extremely precise, and we can save up to 90% of air usage for fine material. That precision is not only important for diamonds, but also for other segments.
TOMRA offers global remote support and onsite service from nearby geographically located offices. Global trends fast tracked the need for a connection between remote support and online data monitoring.
Thus, to meet this need, TOMRA Insight is a cloud-based solution that offers customers one secure, near real-time monitoring platform for all their sorting lines. With a web-based interface for desktop and mobile devices, customers can access digital metrics on the status and performance of their sorters whenever and wherever they want.
The connection between sorting lines and our cloud system enables a more proactive collaboration between customer staff, management, and TOMRA’s team of service experts. Data-driven insights by our support team often reveal areas for improvement even beyond the sorter for quick wins to improve recoveries, maximise throughputs, and reduce downtime.
The new Deep Learning feature, OBTAINTM enables us to sort even more precisely and to double capacities. OBTAIN helps the machine to clearly identify individual rocks, even if clustered, and their position on the belt. This may sound simple, but due to this feature, the sorting efficiency is no longer linked to the capacity as with conventional sorting. The results are higher recoveries, lower yields (less over-sorting), and increased capacity. Each factor directly relates to the return on investment (ROI).
How is it transforming the mining industry?
All in all, applying Tomra’s XRT technology as a bulk concentration step reduces the plant’s footprint and uses less power consumption compared to more conventional and water-intensive technologies. This contributes to lower CAPEX and OPEX per tonne costs.
Please can you share a case study of this technology at work?
15 of the top 23 largest diamonds, bigger than 400 carats, recovered since TOMRA XRT bulk concentration installations commenced fully in the diamond industry in 2014, were recovered with our technology – 13 of them at Lucara’s Karowe Mine, which holds record-breaking finds in various categories. The mine operates 14 bulk concentration TOMRA XRT sorters, which have contributed to its recovery of 7 of the top 10 largest diamonds in history.
What are you looking forward to most for the mining industry in 2025?
We are developing more Deep Learning features to launch soon. Those will open up more applications for sorting and lift detection possibilities to the next level. We foresee huge improvements in applications in metal ores and industrial minerals, which previously were not economically viable.
We look forward to:
- Taking Pilbara into full production to become the biggest lithium sorting plant.
- Enable more lithium plants globally. Several are in the pipeline.
- Take sorting to a new level with more deep learning features to open up markets, which were previously not possible with sorting.
We see ourselves as market makers. We empower our clients not only to succeed in their current markets but also to expand into new ones. Pilbara is home to the largest lithium sorting plant in the world, where sorting technology plays a pivotal role in the development of both the mine and the processing plant. We are proud that TOMRA sorters are a key enabling technology, driving efficiencies and unlocking new opportunities in the mining process.
Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/mining/04022025/qa-with-corn-de-jager-tomra-mining/
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