Investigation on influential factors of bulk ore sortability based on fractal modelling

The uptake of bulk ore sorting technology is hindered by little knowledge in assessing its applicability for certain mine operation. The applicability of the bulk ore sorting technology, referred to as 'sortability', is a multi-folded concept and is influenced by many factors. Researchers have investigated the influence of some of the various factors, but few have done this in a holistic perspective and in a quantitative manner. In this research, nine influential factors of ore sortaibility were integrated in a mathematical framework based on fractal modelling approach. Box-Behnken design was applied and 130 block cave mine operations were hypothesized under different values of the factors. The influence of the factors on the ore sortability were investigated and factors of significant influence were identified. Results showed that ore property, sorting efficiency, metal price, processing cost and operation scale were the most significant factors in affecting the sortability for a mine operation. The research is intended to improve the understanding on the bulk ore sortability for mine productions under different conditions, and to provide a holistic perspective for applying the bulk ore sorting technology.