In the sorting plant, the ore is crushed and sorted into smaller fractions. The ore is screened to various sizes for onward transport to the concentration plant.
When the iron ore is transported from the underground and surface mines to the sorting plant, it is roughly sorted and crushed to smaller fractions, with pieces smaller than 10 cm. In the sorting plant, residual waste rock (surrounding rock found around the ore) is also sorted.
The ore is sorted
When rough sorting has been completed, the ore is separated from the waste rock in magnetic separators. This is possible because the magnetite ore is magnetic. In order to achieve the correct fractions for the subsequent concentration process, the ore is screened and crushed to form even smaller pieces. The sorting process increases the ore's iron content from around 45 percent to approximately 62 percent.
When the sorting of the ore is complete, it is time for concentration.