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De Beers, over the past few decades have dedicated themselves to the optimization and development of the most advanced diamond recovery systems in the world. Working internally as well as with industrial equipment suppliers, diamond extraction and recovery systems have been designed and modified to ensure maximum revenue recovery while minimizing operating costs.
De Beers has internally developed advanced X-ray recovery machines, capable of treating material in a number of different size fractions. To compliment these machines, XST type X-ray sorters with enhanced selectivity for the production of a diamond concentrate of approximately 50% diamond by weight, have been developed.
Raman single particle sorters, also developed by De Beers are capable of processing the 50% diamond by weight, XST concentrate and producing a 95% diamond by weight concentrate. Equipment developed by De Beers incorporates security features which prevents access to the diamond concentrate, significantly reducing the probability of diamond loss while ensuring safe operation. De Beers is currently working with manufacturers of optical sorting systems with the aim of developing both waste rock sorting systems as well as diamond recovery systems. A waste rock sorting unit is currently installed and is being tested in the Snap Lake bulk sample plant.
De Beers has also worked closely with the manufacturers of comminution equipment, testing and optimizing these systems to maximize the diamond liberation potential. Primary areas include high-pressure grinding rolls and the development of models to predict their breakage functions.
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A diamond deportment simulation package has been developed which is able to predict the diamond deportment through the process along with the associated revenue. This simulation package which runs on a LIMN backbone, has proven to be very effective in the detection and elimination of diamond circulating loads, thus enhancing the recovered diamond value due to a reduction in diamond damage.
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