Strategic R&D partnership to develop new sorting systems with Rio Tinto

Published: 28/02/2012
Category: Corporate

TOMRA Sorting Solutions' mining brand CommodasUltrasort and leading international mining group Rio Tinto will form a strategic partnership with the aim to develop commercial scale sorting systems for upgrading bulk minerals.

Currently there are no solutions in the market that fulfil Rio Tinto's specifications for a requested platform. A dedicated R&D program will therefore be initiated by the two partners to develop an adequate solution.

This work will include scaling up Rio Tinto's iron ore and copper sorting technologies IronX(TM) and NuWave(TM) – which convert potential waste rock into a commercially valuable resource – to have each machine capable of sorting 1,000 tonnes of rock an hour. TOMRA Sorting Solutions has previously been a key supplier to both IronX(TM) and NuWave(TM).

Building on substantial sorting experience
"The experience we have gained from more than 6,000 installed systems in the recycling, food and the mining industry plus experience from our ten test facilities around the world have led to significant advances in computing power, sensor technology and detection systems", says TOMRA President and CEO Stefan Ranstrand. "In this strategic R&D partnership, we will apply these new technologies to bulk mineral sorting, working towards enabling a scale not previously attainable".

The standard TOMRA sorting product range will not be affected by the program.

Top