Marula Mining’s Tomra XRT Ore Sorter progress update
Marula Mining is pleased to provide a further update on the installation and planned commissioning of the Tomra COM XRT 1200 Ore Sorter at the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine.
Maintenance and refurbishment work of the Ore Sorter has now been completed by the Company’s management team and its consultants after transportation of the Ore Sorter and associated equipment to Springbok in the Northern Cape Province in August 2024. The Ore Sorter is now to be installed and commissioned at Blesberg, where Tomra Systems ASA will complete a final maintenance and servicing, and with its personnel on-site, also assist with the installation and commissioning process.
Further detectability and sortability test work has been completed by Tomra at its Mining Test Centre in Johannesburg in August 2024. X-ray transmission was used due to the difference in attenuation of X-ray radiation amongst the different Blesberg ore types. This was completed as part of the training of the Ore Sorter and parameterisation of its image-processing sorting software. This test work has confirmed the ability to separate the various Blesberg ores including the spodumene, feldspars, coltan, mica, lepidolite, quartz, garnet and waste rock. Additional sortability test work is now due to commence in order to assist in determining the separation and sorting performance of the Ore Sorter by size range, recovery, grade and ore concentration factors.
Jason Brewer, CEO of Marula Mining, said: “The completion of the maintenance and refurbishment of the Tomra Ore Sorter and the associated support equipment is another further positive step forward at Blesberg.
The installation and commissioning of its at Blesberg is the next step and is a critical one for us as we look to both expand our ore processing capabilities and our plans to produce and sell multiple mineral products from the mining operation.
The Tomra Ore Sorter is also a key part of our planned additional new processing facilities that we have planned to have operational in 2025 to allow the production of higher value ‘intermediary’ lithium products, that are needed in the manufacture of electrical batteries.
More updates from Blesberg are due shortly and I look forward to providing these as we move ahead and achieve more technical and development milestones at Blesberg.”
