The efficiency of a metallurgic process depends, to a large extent, of the adequate and timely operational decision making in light of the variability of the physical and chemical quality of the minerals that go into the process. To do this, it is necessary to quantify the changes of the intrinsic parameters, such as grades, and of the mineral concentration process, in particular the mineralization of ore and rocks, so that control strategies can be applied allowing the adjustment of operational conditions and optimize the process’ efficiency.

SAX is the first on-line mineral analysis system. This product innovation consisted on transforming an X-ray diffractometer, used for mineralogical analysis of dust samples in the laboratory, into a device that can do the same but in a short amount of time in a mining operation of a pulp or a material in liquid state. Besides the device’s transformation, a unique sampling system and software, that would do an accurate mineral analysis, had to be designed and built.