Estimation of comminution energy consumption for rock comminution

1 . An apparatus for facilitating an estimation of comminution energy consumption for rock comminution, the apparatus comprising:

a pulsed laser source for ablating rock material to generate laser-induced plasma shock waves;

a focusing lens system for focusing the pulsed lased source for ablating the rock material;

a microphone for capturing the laser-induced plasma shock waves for estimating the comminution energy consumption for the rock material; and

a processor for comparing an acoustic signal corresponding to the laser-induced plasma shock waves to an acoustic fingerprint of one or more rock materials.

2 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is a drill core logger, a hand-held rock analyzer, a conveyor-belt rock analyzer or a standoff wall scanner.

3 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , comprising a distance-to-target measurement unit for determining a distance to the rock material.

4 . The apparatus according to claim 3 , configured to perform a repeated cycle of generating a laser pulse with the pulsed laser source for ablating the rock material, focusing the laser pulse with respect to the rock material with the focusing lens system for generating the one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves, capturing the one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves by the microphone and measuring the distance to the rock material by the distance-to-target measurement system for maintaining the distance to the rock material and/or computationally compensating for any changes in the distance.

5 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the capturing frequency of the microphone for capturing the shock waves is larger than the repetition rate of the pulsed laser source for ablating the rock material.

6 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , configured to estimate the comminution energy consumption utilizing a machine-learning algorithm for associating acoustic signals corresponding to laser-induced plasma shock waves with the comminution energy consumption for the rock material.

7 . The apparatus according to claim 1 , comprising an optical detector for capturing an optical signal from the ablated rock material for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for the rock material.

8 . A comminution circuit comprising the apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus configured for facilitating an estimation of comminution energy consumption for an input feed of the comminution circuit.

9 . A method for facilitating an estimation of comminution energy consumption for rock comminution, the method comprising:

ablating rock material by a pulsed laser source to generate one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves;

capturing the one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves by a microphone for estimating the comminution energy consumption for the rock material; and

comparing an acoustic signal corresponding to the laser-induced plasma shock waves to an acoustic fingerprint of one or more rock materials.

10 . The method according to claim 9 , performed at core logging of the rock material or at an input feed conveyor belt of a comminution circuit.

11 . The method according to claim 9 , comprising measuring a distance to the rock material for maintaining the distance and/or computationally compensating for any changes in the distance during repeated ablation of the rock material.

12 . The method according to claim 11 , comprising a repeated cycle of generating a laser pulse for ablating the rock material, focusing the laser pulse with respect to the rock material for generating the one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves, capturing the one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves and measuring the distance to the rock material for maintaining the distance to the rock material and/or computationally compensating for any changes in the distance.

13 . The method according to claim 9 , comprising receiving a signal corresponding the one or more laser-induced plasma shock waves captured by the microphone in time domain and transforming the signal into frequency domain for estimating the comminution energy consumption.

14 . The method according to claim 9 , comprising estimating the comminution energy consumption utilizing a machine-learning algorithm for associating acoustic signals corresponding to laser-induced plasma shock waves with the comminution energy consumption for the rock material.

15 . The method according to claim 9 , comprising capturing an optical signal from the ablated rock material for laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for the rock material.