Evaluation of complex copper ore sorting: Effect of optical filtering on particle recognition

In mixed and multi-component mineral systems, the reflectance spectra of individual minerals interfere with the reflectance/absorbance features of other minerals and random spectra can form. This contradictory case causes difficulty in implementing ore sorting to certain minerals. Hence, filtering out certain wave lengths may prevent this situation which makes it difficult for an ore sorter to perform a selective and efficient separation. The scope of this study is to investigate the feasibility of the optical filtering to enhance the differences in the reflectance features of mineral grains, and to compare the possible separation performances of the ore sorters under the best filtered and unfiltered conditions.