On‐line analysis of chrome–iron ores on a conveyor belt using x‐ray fluorescence analysis

Abstract

Abstract We describe the method for and results of the application of an EDXRF on‐line analyzer for the analysis and quality testing of chrome–iron ores. For this task we used a BSI‐2000 analyzer for measurement of lumpy material being transported by a conveyor belt. The task of fully automated quantitative analysis of material on a conveyor belt is not very simple, as the results of measurements should not depend significantly on many factors, such as the distance to the measured material, the lump size, unknown and changing amounts of elements unseen by the analyzer; air and material humidity and ambient temperature. To solve most of these problems we used the program AssayKit for elemental and molecular composition calculation based on the fundamental parameters method. The chosen configuration of the x‐ray tube illumination cone and the detector registration cone allows measurements to be made at a wide range of distances between the analyzer and material. The XRF analyzer with this program was successfully applied to chrome–iron ore analysis in Kemi mine, Finland, for quality control of outgoing production. The accuracy of analysis—standard deviation of 1.1% for chrome and 0.8% for iron in full operation—was verified by more than 300 comparisons with chemical analysis measurements. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.