Business Chief USA December 2019

DRA GLOBAL
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CLICK TO WATCH: ‘BRENT HILSCHER FOR DRA GLOBAL’
success with electromagnetic sensors,
and admits that “you want to keep an
open mind but some techniques work
better for certain ore types, so it’s
important to match the right analysis
approach to the specific site”.
Allied to the practical dynamics of
the sorting process, Hilscher believes
ore sorting economics are crucial.
“Building an economic model for every
project tells us what the optimum
operating conditions are going to be.
A key metric is profit recovery.
Normally, metal recovery is a driving
metric for operations where, for example,
we’ll look at how much gold or copper
is recovered at the end of the process.
When we do ore sorting, we’ll often
throw away 5% or more of the valuable
minerals, so we developed a metric to
learn the actual value of what’s being
lost where the operating costs for
the extraction and tailings facilities
are incorporated into that recovery
number. Discarding a low-grade rock
would have a positive impact on profit
recovery, which rewards us for throwing
away rocks we’re losing money on.”
DECEMBER 2019