XPS | Expert Process Solutions

The Materials Technology Group provides a range of services to operations that includes on-site inspection, non-destructive testing, corrosion and failure analysis, as well as materials design and selection. These tasks are vital to the assurance of safe and uninterrupted operation of key metallurgical processes. The group’s role focuses on support with materials engineering expertise in areas like corrosion, wear, and damage analysis specific to the mining industry (i.e. mines, smelters, acid plants).

A large proportion of the group’s work consists of on-site support and coordination with client maintenance and shutdown crews, allowing operations to maximize or improve the reliability and service life of equipment. Customers’ situations are unique, so the group has often applied innovative technology as part of solution packages. For example, the Materials group has been an industry leader in the adoption of drone technology to assist in acid plant inspections, allowing the safe, rapid and successful inspection of equipment in difficult-to-access locations without requiring the potentially hazardous ingress of personnel.

The Process Control and Automation Group combines skills in advanced control with both data handling technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) to build new generations of controls and decision-making systems. The wide range of applications for this technology include areas as diverse as energy reduction, mine ventilation, control and optimization of unit processes (smelters, converters, grinding mills, thickeners, etc.), protection of equipment from physical damage, or prescriptive maintenance.

The Process Control and Automation group works closely with operations, including some embedded roles in plant support. One high-potential area of development that promises to expand the reach of the group is remote loop monitoring, enabled by the continuing advances in digital technology. The group is capable of creating “virtual control rooms” at the Sudbury site, allowing process loops to be continuously and remotely monitored and tuned, with direct contact with the site team as required. This allows the Sudbury site to offer advanced control services to remote operations anywhere in the world, many or most of which could not afford to have embedded personnel dedicated to this task.

The Process Modelling & Simulation Group provides unique expertise and capability of combining different modelling techniques with their in-house interface development to link several platforms, for example, embedding multiphase multicomponent non-ideal thermodynamic modelling into Multiphysics simulations or high-level process simulation for digital twin plant simulation.

The Mineral Processing Group applies the accumulated experience of decades of flowsheet development to the design and support of mineral processing operations.

From its origin as an operational support group to Falconbridge and Noranda base metals operations the group has now diversified into precious metals (e.g. gold, silver, PGE), rare earths, lithium and industrial minerals, offering a wide range of services to the global mining community. Services range from metallurgical testing to flowsheet development and piloting, also including activities such as site support, plant audits, start-up support, desktop studies and metals accounting.

The Mineral Science provides a team of geoscientists for mineralogical diagnostics and support. The facility offers advanced mineralogical services such as QEMSCAN and TESCAN quantitative mineralogy, XRD analysis and laser ablation (LA-ICPMS) backed up by a variety of laboratory sizing and pre-concentration methodologies in order to provide comprehensive analyses and process development services.

The application of these methods is diverse, ranging from direct plant support or support to in-house metallurgical development programs to theoretical extrapolations of metallurgical performance for exploration projects based upon the proportion of pay metals distributed into the various mineral components of the ore.

The Mineral Science group provides and develops state of the art techniques and custom solutions for sample preparation and analysis, allowing them to extend their activities into a wide range of minerals and commodities (e.g. soluble salts, coal, graphite and other exceptionally soft materials such as talc). The group has also engaged in some advanced environmental applications such as the origins of dust collected in sampling filters, fiber counts, and other similar applications.

XPS has conducted several projects using a 350 kW DC electric furnace to process strategic metals such as chromite ore from the Ring of Fire deposit and have extensive piloting capabilities for high temperature processes including fluid bed roasting and thermal treatment.

The technologies for hydrometallurgy developed with clients have a long-term outlook in mind, which helps to ensure those clients are preparing for sustainable business many years into the future while meeting the needs of today. Today’s clients are strongly focused on issues falling into the categories of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) as production activities need to achieve their objectives in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.