Patent ID: 6122343
Filing Date: 2000-09-19
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A method of sorting a material produced in the minerals industry which comprises the steps of:i. feeding a stream of the material through a gap between a single x-ray tube operating at a selected voltage and two or more separate arrays of x-ray detectors;ii. operating the x-ray tube and directing x-rays of different photon energies towards the x-ray detectors;iii. operating the detectors and detecting x-rays received from the x-ray tube and generating data of detected transmitted x-rays obtained at different photon energies for each section of the stream of the material that passes through the gap;iv. identifying a constituent of the material by processing the data of detected transmitted x-rays obtained at different photon energies to minimise the effects of non-compositional factors relating to the material that otherwise would affect the identification of the constituent to thereby detect the constituent; andv. separating the constituent from the material.