Sorting Through Spain's Mining Potential

Spain is one of the few countries with large and diverse mineral reserves, with the capacity and potential to be a key supplier of raw materials for Europe’s ongoing energy and digital transition. However, the country faces the challenge of improving processes and creating a more efficient and competitive mining sector.

Working closely with the Spanish mining industry, TOMRA Mining has engaged in a mutual learning experience – visiting projects across the country, studying minerals, and testing and evaluating technology that enables more efficient separation of valuable minerals from waste material. Additionally, TOMRA has been assessing the environmental and economic impact of implementing this technology in mining projects, while ensuring compliance with Spanish regulations regarding the use of X-ray machines.

Mining in Spain

Spain is home to a large and diverse range of essential and strategic raw materials. In Andalusia, TOMRA has focused on testing metal recovery processes, while in Galicia, its efforts have been directed at improving the quality of industrial minerals to meet market demands.

Each mining project presents unique challenges when evaluating the integration of TOMRA’s technology to ensure successful outcomes. These include material preparation, processing capacity, recovery rates, and determining the economic viability threshold of a project. To address these challenges, executives, technical experts, and service engineers have provided guidance and support to integrate technologies efficiently into existing processes, while minimising operational costs in Spanish mining projects.

Currently, TOMRA has eight machines installed in Spain, utilising its three most widely used technologies: X-ray, laser, and colour sorting.

Laser and X-ray technologies in Spain

TOMRA’s sensor-based sorting technology is both advanced and versatile, thanks to its wide range of industrially available sensors, and the flexibility to programme different sorting algorithms.

With five different sensors available, TOMRA tailors its solutions to the specific mineral and sorting requirements of each client. In some cases, a single sensor can recover up to 95% of the valuable mineral (depending on the mineral type), such as tin, using an X-ray transmission sensor. In other instances, combining multiple sensors throughout the production process – such as using both colour and laser sensors for quartz sorting – has enabled clients to achieve recovery rates exceeding 95%.

X-ray technology (XRT)

TOMRA’s XRT sorting technology enables materials to be recognised and separated based on their specific atomic density. When processing sulfide ores to extract copper, zinc, or lead, the primary focus is ensuring that the mill operates at full capacity. The challenge lies in optimising the process by removing waste material early, while maintaining a high recovery rate. This approach reduces the amount of barren and low-grade rock being processed, increasing the metal content in the mill feed. The result: significant cost savings and a lower environmental impact per tonne of metal produced.

TOMRA’s XRT sorters analyse individual rocks on a conveyor belt using X-ray sources, while detectors within the belt collect mineral data. The sensors’ close proximity to the rocks, combined with powerful X-ray energy sources, generates ultra-high-resolution images. This enables the XRT sorters to efficiently process a wide range of ore deposits, including disseminated porphyry copper ores. Waste rocks are then ejected with high precision by a high-speed, precise pneumatic module, enhancing sorting efficiency.

This technology has been operational in Spain for two years at Saloro, Europe’s largest tungsten mine, located in Barruecopardo (Salamanca). Two X-ray machines in the XRT sorting plant contribute to a 26% increase in material fed into the gravity separation process.

 

This is a preview of an article that was originally published in the April 2025 issue of Global Mining Review.

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Read the article online at: https://www.globalminingreview.com/special-reports/22042025/sorting-through-spains-mining-potential/