Project duration: 1 January 2020 – 31 December 2021
Objective
T-REX, the development of a novel timegated RAMAN sensor adapted to the requirements of the raw materials sector, aims at supplying precise real-time mineralogical analysis of rock samples. The T-REX sensor will be integrated into EIT´s ongoing project ANCORELOG, an analytical multi-sensor drill core logging system, with the objective of further developing an inter-european automatization and digitalization concept of drill core logging.
The solution (technology)
T-REX consists of developing a timegated RAMAN sensor adapted to the requirements of the exploration and mining industry and its integration into EIT´s multi-sensor drill core logging system ANCORELOG (Fig. 1).
The novel timegated RAMAN technology, a significant improvement of the classic and well known RAMAN technology, allows a fast and precise mineralogical sample analysis and is applicable on a wide range of minerals including those related to CRM such as Lithium. Mineralogical sample composition data gathered from the T-REX sensor will flow into ANCORELOG´s multi-sensor data fusion approach and enhance ANCORELOG´s smart algorithms designed to classify rock samples into geological and geometallurgical domains.
The growing demand in automatization and digitalization of processes related to the raw materials value chain also applies to the task of drill core logging. Huge drilling campaigns are performed during exploration, mining, processing and recycling of raw materials involving a considerable amount of time and costs associated with sample collection (drilling), sample preparation, sample transport and subsequent manual characterization and laboratory analysis. A precise, standardized time and cost efficient analytical logging process is of substantial importance for successful exploration and mining operations.
T-REX presents an enhanced exploration, extraction, processing and recycling method for all commodities including critical raw materials and will facilitate a precise planning of upcoming tasks by gaining high value information at early stages. The integration of T-REX into ANCORELOG will enhance the automatization and digitalization approach providing mineralogical composition data that is essential for a solid planning of ore recovery and processing.
Partnership
- Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources, Germany
- DMT GmbH & Co. KG, Germany
- EIT Raw Materials GmbH, Germany
- KGHM Cuprum Ltd. Research & Development Centre, Poland
- LTU Business AB, Sweden
- Minas de Aguas Teñidas SAU, Spain
- Timegate Instruments Oy, Finland
- Université de Liège, Belgium
- Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd. VTT (Lead Partner), Finland