ITMO University (Russia):

Gorbunova E. V., Ph. D. in Engineering Sciences, Senior Researcher, gorbunova@grv.ifmo.ru
Chertov А. N., Ph. D. in Engineering Sciences, Senior Researcher, a.n.chertov@mail.ru

Research-and-Production Enterprise GeoTestService (Russia):

Olkhovskiy А. М., General Director, a_olh@mail.ru

The paper considers an effect of the color scheme choice upon solid minerals optical sorting efficiency, which is based on registration of color differences between valuable component and associated minerals, comprising feed ore. RGB, YUV and HLS color schemes, typical for optical sorters, are briefly described, the advantages and disadvantages being analyzed from the viewpoint of processing tasks accomplishment. The experimental studies, performed on the Konevinskoye deposit gold-bearing ores representative mineral sampling, composed of 117 specimens, permitted to determine operating bands limits of all the above mentioned color spaces with respect to the sample in question. With that, with regard to RGB color space, thresholds of R/G and B/G relationships are proposed to be used instead of thresholds of separate R and B color channels. HLS color scheme, distinguished by complete independence of separate color channels, is recognized to be most effective with respect to the ore of the deposit in question.

The work was performed with the financial aid from the leading universities of the Russian Federation (government order, project No. 8.599.2014/K).

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