Promi-Mex’s Experience in Chile: Mineral Sampling Towers

Companies in the mining industry for the most part process material extracted from their own properties, and there are other companies that in addition to processing their own ore, acquire it from third parties. And then, there are also other companies that only buy minerals to process them in their mills.

In Chile there is an interesting case of a state company that supports small and medium producers. It provides purchasing, processing and marketing services so that they can access the metals market. The company has around fifteen "Purchasing Powers" in different regions across the country.

In addition to this company, there are other companies that are dedicated to the acquisition of minerals and due to the importance of their business, it is important to know the mineral grade of the product that the company buys and the producer sells. To determine the characteristics of the mineral, the companies have Sampling Towers, designed under strict standards to provide reliability in the measurement, both to the buyer and the seller, and to ensure that the samples obtained have the lowest possible sampling error.

The equipment that is part of the Towers must be well designed and comply with international sampling standards. In addition, sampling protocols must be carefully designed and adapted to different types of minerals, which can be by size, type, or heterogeneity. Additionally, sample collection and integrity should also be a priority when collecting minerals to avoid contamination or, in some extreme cases, fraud.

A suitable and efficient design of a Sample Tower, depending on the characteristics of the mineral, generally has a straight-line primary cutter that is located at the discharge point of the conveyor belt. This is in charge of cutting off the entire flow, where the sample obtained for each increment is dosed towards a particle size reduction stage through a crusher. Once the size is reduced, the sample mass is discharged to a secondary cutter with a circular path to reduce the sample mass that will be collected at the end of the batch.

The final sample of each batch is stored in a deposit that is inside a container, to which only authorized personnel have access. Meanwhile, products rejected from the system are returned by a conveyor belt that is part of the sampling tower.

Promi-Mex was founded in 2014 in Saltillo, Coahuila, and is specialized in the development of technologies and equipment used in the area of ​​mineral processing and related industries.