Mount Carbine tungsten producer EQ Resources has installed its third TOMRA XRT ore sorter at the Far North Queensland site.

The new addition comes hot on the heels of a milestone last month, with the start of open-cut mining at the site’s Andy White pit – delivering high-grade ore alongside the company’s ongoing reprocessing of low-grade stockpiles at the historical mine site.

“It’s great to add another TOMRA sorter to our operation,” chief executive officer Kevin MacNeill said.

“We’re really seeing the effect of the upgraded XRT Sorter concentrates in our plant and look forward to bringing on the new machine while we give our initial pilot sorter, TOMRA 1, a refurb and then bring it back into production once we finish the additional engineering required.”

Related: Blast-off for open-pit mining at Mount Carbine

Over the past year of sorting low-grade stockpile material, EQ Resources has seen an average 10-12 per cent mass yield from the feed to concentrate and has optimised the processing parameters to maximise tungsten recoveries.

The company said that since starting to process the primary ore from the Andy White pit, an increased mass yield of 15-18 per cent had been achieved, with stable tungsten oxide recoveries above 95 per cent.

TOMRA technicians are set to arrive on site this week for commissioning of the new sorter.

The company expects to reap production benefits from the newer programming and increased efficiencies of the newest sorter.

Below: the new ore sorter arrives at the Mount Carbine site.