Mineralogical information with Timegated® Raman in the GoldenEye project
The H2020 GoldenEye project is progressing and Timegate has successfully measured the mineralogy of sample material with Timegated® Raman spectroscopy. The measuring was carried out with Sandvik Mining and Construction Oy in Sandvik’s Test Mine in Tampere, Finland.
The GoldenEye EU project is building an AI platform for mine site monitoring. The platform will integrate data from several sources and provide a cloud solution for authorities to obtain mining site information. The project will also focus on developing new sensing techniques and on adapting sensing techniques for mining site monitoring. For more information see: http://www.goldeneye-project.eu/
Timegated® Raman monitoring system installed into the drilling unit.
Time-gated Raman spectroscopy produces mineralogical and structural information from minerals and other materials and the measurements can be carried out in a non-contact manner. One of the benefits is that the produced information is mineralogical instead of elemental which may help to distinguish different minerals or mixtures with similar elemental compositions. Time-gated Raman spectroscopy is able to suppress fluorescence interference which is often an issue when measuring mineral materials with conventional Raman.
During the GoldenEye project, we are aiming to customize a time-gated Raman analyzer and integrate it into a drilling unit. This would enable continuous and near real-time measurements from drilling cuttings, and the measurement results would be sent to the GoldenEye platform where the data could be used to augment and improve the mineral predictive maps produced by the other GoldenEye sensing techniques.
Close-up of the installed Timegated® Raman Probe.
GoldenEye test measurements were carried out at Sandvik’s facilities using time-gated Raman technology. Sample material was sucked up with a full-scale drill drilling unit and the material flow in the suction hose was measured in real-time with a measurement probe that was attached to the drilling unit. The measurement results could be used to characterize and classify the material that is flowing through the suction hose.
