Will XRT Sorting Technology Sweep Out Other Conventional Processing Methods?

The XRT sorting technology that integrated artificial intelligence and X-Ray Diffraction Topography into the coal and minerals pre-concentrate is soaring in China. To take its benefits into consideration, some experts and advocators who are active in China's coal mining industry beat the drum for this cutting-edge innovation that would supersede the conventional coal preparation methods absolutely. To what extent do we agree or disagree?

The rapid development of XRT sorters' market demand and installation has already transformed the way the mineral processing industry works (For example, please refer to the below conceptual design of a coal preparation plant that only selected XRT will be delivered in South Gobi, Mongolia). For sort of purposes, there are some professionals and business leaders who have claimed that this state-of-art invention would replace the traditional coal preparation methods completely. However, we can only agree that this is the greatest innovation in recent 10 years, but the other coal-washing technologies will still be dominant in this industry.

Firstly, the main function of XRT is for pre-discharging which means only lump coal and gangue can separate by it. But the particle size of raw coal can range from 0 mm to 300 mm, even much bigger, whereas XRT can only process the materials whose dimension is between 12 mm ~ 300 mm. Because the fine coal still needs to be recovered, especially the precious coking coal, the traditional coal preparation technologies shall play a crucial role for this purpose. For instance, we need centrifuges and filter press for de-watering, as well as TBS (coal slurry separator) and flotation to yield more fine clean coal. Thus, XRT cannot sweep other methods out.

Another point to consider is that XRT is relatively expensive for some mines that are not large-scale production. They can adopt some kinds of old-fashion machines with affordable costs, such as jigging, three-products gravity-feeding dense medium, or even by hand selection. Therefore, the major target market of XRT shall focus on middle-large size mines. On the other hand, all the existing ‘old’ technologies will have their own market.

In conclusion, while it is true that XRT can bring tremendous benefits for mines, such as contribution to carbon neutral, saving OPEX, and improving operation performance by gorgeous technology, XRT is still just one major choice for the whole mineral processing industry. That’s why the other technologies will still hold the leading position in the coal preparation industry.

More technical information of XRT sorter:
click here.