top of page

SPECTRAFLOW ANALYTICS RECEIVES A SECOND ORDER FOR A CROSSBELT ANALYZER FOR IRON ORE QUALITY MONITORING FROM VALE S.A., BRAZIL

SPECTRAFLOW ANALYTICS RECEIVES A SECOND ORDER FOR A CROSSBELT ANALYZER FOR IRON ORE QUALITY MONITORING FROM VALE S.A., BRAZIL

Vale S.A. Brazil ordered the second SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer for quality monitoring in one of its iron ore dispatch terminals, Ponta da Madeira (TMPM), in Maranhão, Brazil. This order is also the third order of a minerals Crossbelt Analyzer in South America.

 

After the very successful installation of a SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer for the same application in the Terminal Ilha Guaíba (TIG) in Rio de Janeiro, this second installation of a SpectraFlow Analyzer within VALE is purposed to enhance the process control of its ship loading operations with real-time moisture and chemical data.

 

SpectraFlow is already installed in the cement, iron ore, gold, platinum, copper, potash, bauxite and recycling industries, while expanding the applications continuously within the individual industries and into new fields, such as halite and aluminium processing.

 

About VALE S.A.:


In 1942 Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) was founded and renamed and rebranded in 2007 to VALE S.A. Today the company is the largest producer of iron ore and nickel worldwide. Vale also has operations producing manganese, ferroalloys, copper, bauxite, potash, kaolin and cobalt in its commodities basket. Additionally, VALE S.A. also operates nine hydroelectricity plants and a network of railroads, ships and ports to transport their products. Analysts have pointed out that it is the sheer scale of Vale's logistics department which distinguishes the global mining giant from its competitors. The Ponta da Madeira Maritime Terminal, which distributes iron ore delivered from the Carajas and S11D mines to consumer markets around the world, is one such logistic mammoth. In fact, it is the biggest Port Terminal in Brazil and one of the biggest worldwide.


SpectraFlow Installation for Quality Monitoring:


The SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer is an online instrument which has been expertly designed and engineered, with Swiss precision no less, to measure raw materials on belt conveyors at an industry-leading frequency. As raw materials from the mine are processed through a crusher and blended various times, the raw material on the conveyor belt is statistically homogenized and therefore, the analytical results of the SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer are both representative and accurate. Based on these accurate, high frequency results, the ship feed from the blending yards can be monitored with best practice precision. Alongside ship load quality monitoring, the measurements by the Analyzer can also be used to monitor the quality of the incoming material from different mine and stockpile sources.


By including a SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer into your process, raw material handling can be optimized, helping operations save time, effort and stress and thus, achieve their targets with lower costs and lower risk, boosting revenue.


Some of the benefits of SpectraFlow's technology are:

  • Reduced reliance on sampling. Sampling from conveyor belts is unrepresentative and slow for process optimization. Additionally, sampling is very work intensive regarding operation and maintenance. Online analysis is perfectly suited for real time process control and introduces a redundancy for quality assurance.

  • The analyzer will deliver accurate results of the total ship load quality. Beside the mineral elemental and mineral content, the analyzer can also be used to measure and, therefore, control moisture.

  • The data can be used to track the raw material quality from the different mines.

  • Due to the high frequency of measurement, in the order of milliseconds, further control strategies can be implemented for smaller changes to the process through a closed loop, rather than relying on human operators to make large, reactive changes to the process.

 

This SpectraFlow order is the 20th order for the minerals industry and the 4th order in South America. This order raises the installed base in Brazil to 3 analyzers (2 Crossbelt, 1 Airslide) and worldwide to 80 analyzers (43 Crossbelt & 37 Airslide).

bottom of page