TOMRA Sorting technology has helped to discover one of the largest diamonds in history - an unbroken 1,758 carat stone at Karowe Mine in Botswana.
Commissioned by Lucara Diamond Corp, it uses a cutting-edge X-Ray camera with DUOLINE sensor technology to recognise and separate material based on its "atomic density".
It also helps to get a high level of purity in sorting materials, irrespective of the size and the degree of moisture or surface pollution present.
Since TOMRA XRT technology has been introduced, it has recovered two diamonds greater than 1,000 carats and detected four of the top ten largest diamonds in the world to date.
Geoffrey Madderson, diamond segment manager in TOMRA Sorting Mining said, “As the largest diamond ever recovered by a mechanical process, it reinforces the unparalleled value XRT offers kimberlite and diamond mining companies,” Madderson further added, “Lucara’s innovative strategy in combination with TOMRA’s world-class sensor technology has once again proved an enormous success.’’
In addition to the XRT circuit at Karowe, TOMRA currently operates XRT and other advanced optical sorting equipment in Russia, Canada, Brazil and other countries around the world.
TOMRA Sorting Mining designs and manufactures sensor-based sorting technologies for the global mineral processing and mining industries.
