:: Microwave Communition Technology on Track for Commercialisation

Microwave technology offers the biggest advance in the communition of rock for mineral extraction since human labor gave way to the machine.

The potential of the technology, which exploits the differing thermal dielectric properties of minerals to cause them to fracture along grain boundaries,has been understood for more than 20 years, but has not been considered commercially viable until now because of the amount of energy required.

However, the research team working on AMIRA project P879A are now confident that the pulsed microwave technology they are developing will overcome this. They believe that within a few years it will be economically more efficient than conventional communition for many ores.

"We are actively building up a database of ore types that are responsive to this approach and we now know that a lot of economically significant types can benefit from it," says Richard Beck, the AMIRA Research Director who is coordinating the project.

Key research institutions are the Universities of Stellenbosch and Nottingham and e2v technologies, a British-based firm responsible for development of the microwave generation and deployment equipment.

Industry sponsors are Anglo American, BHP Billiton, Outokumpu and Rio Tinto.