Indonesian Nickel mine adopts Plotlogic’s OreSense®

Executive Summary

An Indonesian nickel mine directly servicing the country’s electric vehicle (EV) market has acquired Plotlogic’s OreSense® to provide real-time mine planning data. This intelligence will lead to improvements in assay turn-around times, enable improved drilling rates and carbon emission savings.

Problem Statement

Prior to OreSense®, the mine used a reactive grade control method where ore was mined, moved to a stockpile, tested and then blended. Traditional short-term mine planning techniques of sampling a drill pattern required the services of laboratories which are expensive, inaccurate, time consuming and carbon intensive.

Solution

The nickel mine acquired a Plotlogic Digital Assay solution in January 2023. It has since moved to a six-meter drilling program with samples scanned by OreSense® to build its grade control models. The OreSense® measures nickel grade, iron, the ratio of iron to nickel and detects clay species in real time in core, hand samples and pulp.

Results

Plotlogic’s OreSense® is one method employed by an Indonesian nickel mine as it seeks to double its production of nickel to 2.4 million tonnes of high grade ore per year, and an additional 4 million tonnes of medium and low grade ore per year. OreSense® has led to a better system of short-term mine planning and grade control, meaning recovery is optimised.

Conclusion

The mine is soon to start construction of a pyrometallurgy smelter. Once live, grade control and optimising mill feed will take on a new level of importance.