SPECTRAFLOW ANALYTICS RECEIVES ORDER FOR A CROSSBELT ANALYZER FOR IRON ORE QUALITY MONITORING FROM VALE S.A., BRAZIL
Vale S.A. Brazil ordered a SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer for quality monitoring of its iron ore dispatch terminal in Ilha Guaíba, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This is the first order of VALE S.A. and the second order of a minerals Crossbelt Analyzer in South America. 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.
About VALE S.A.:
In 1942 Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) was founded and renamed and rebranded in 2007 to VALE S.A. The company is today the largest producer of iron ore and nickel worldwide. Beside these commodities also manganese, ferroalloys, copper, bauxite, potash, kaolin and cobalt are produced. Beside its mining activities VALE S.A. also operates nine hydroelectricity plants and a network of railroads, ships and ports to transport their products. The Terminal Ilha Guaíba in Rio de Janeiro state is one of these ship loading terminals, where the first SpectraFlow Analyzer is installed. Further installations are planned in all ports.
While the majority of activities are in Brazil, VALE S.A. is present in 30 countries around the globe. Its iron ore production reached in 2020 300’000’000 tons, nickel 214’000 tons, coal 5’878’000 tons, copper 360’100 tons, cobalt 4’672 tons and gold 469’000 onze.
Production of iron ore is in Brazil and its Serra Sul (S11D) mine is the largest iron ore reserve in the world. Nickel is produced by VALE S.A. in Canada, Indonesia, New Caledonia and also Brazil. VALES Copper production is in Brazil, Canada, Chile and Zambia. Coal is produced by Vale in Australia and Mozambique.
SpectraFlow Installation for Quality Monitoring:
General:
The SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer is an online analyzer to be able to measure raw materials on belt conveyors in a very high 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 homogeneous and therefore the analytical results of the SpectraFlow Crossbelt Analyzer are very accurate. Based on these accurate, high frequent results the feed from the blending yards onto the ships can exactly be monitored. Beside the exact monitoring of the quality of the ship load also the quality of the supplied ore from the various mines can be monitored.
By using SpectraFlow an optimization of the raw material handling will be achieved.
Summarized benefits are:
No need of sampling. Sampling from conveyor belts is unrepresentative and slow for process optimization. Additionally sampling is very work intensive regarding operation and maintenance.
The analyzer will deliver accurate results of the total ship load quality. Beside the mineral elemental and mineral content also moisture is measured.
The data can be used to track the raw material quality from the different mines.
Due to high frequent measurements further control strategies can be implemented.
This SpectraFlow order is the 17th order for the minerals industry and the 3rd order in South America. This order raises the installed based in Brazil to 2 analyzers (1 Crossbelt, 1 Airslide) and worldwide to over 65 analyzers (37 Crossbelt & 28 Airslide).
SpectraFlow Analytics Ltd. Switzerland are the experts in providing online analysis for the cement and minerals industry without any radioactive sources nor neutron generators. The NIR technology used for the SpectraFlow Analyzers is not requiring any permits or licenses and there are no restrictions in buying, importing or maintaining the analyzers. This results in very low operating costs and high availability of the analyzers combined with highly accurate measurement results.
