Key Takeaways

  • MineSense BeltSense is a real, named, commercially available product — not a generic concept — for continuous ore-grade sensing directly on the conveyor.
  • It measures mineral content on the belt independent of belt speed or throughput, closing the gap between blasthole/shovel grade estimates and what actually reaches the plant.
  • It’s retrofittable onto existing conveyor infrastructure with no major overhaul, and integrates with material-quality systems like Siemens Simine MAQ.
  • Pairs naturally with MineSense’s ShovelSense (grade sensing at the dig face) for grade control that spans from the pit to the crusher.

TL;DR

Belt-level AI grade sensing means installing MineSense BeltSense above your conveyor — a retrofit sensor that continuously reads ore grade and byproducts in real time so you can catch dilution or misclassified material before it reaches the mill.

How Do I Monitor Ore Grade on the Belt With AI?

BeltSense sits above the conveyor and scans material as it passes underneath, producing a continuous stream of grade and ore-characteristic data rather than the periodic, spot-check picture you get from manual sampling or lab assays. Because it measures independent of belt speed and throughput, it works across the normal operating range of a working conveyor without needing to slow production down to sample.

The practical value is in what it lets you do downstream: with a live grade signal on the belt, you can trigger automated stockpile diversion, flag material that doesn’t match its expected block-model grade (catching dilution or mis-mucking upstream), and feed a more accurate, higher-frequency grade signal into your plant feed-blending logic than assay-based sampling alone provides. MineSense pairs BeltSense with their ShovelSense product — grade sensing at the shovel/dig face — through a shared MineSense Data Portal, so operations running both get a grade picture that spans from the moment ore is dug to the moment it hits the crusher, rather than a single checkpoint. There’s also a validated integration path with Siemens’ Simine MAQ material quality management system, if your plant already runs Siemens process control.

Installation is a retrofit onto existing conveyor infrastructure — MineSense positions this explicitly as not requiring a major infrastructure overhaul, which is the main practical advantage over trying to add grade sensing earlier in the value chain (e.g., in-pit or at the shovel) where instrumentation is harder to retrofit.

Try It With Geocluster

If you’re comparing belt-level sensing against shovel-level or blasthole-level grade control investments — and trying to work out where in your value chain a sensor actually pays for itself fastest — Geocluster can help you pull together the comparative case studies and vendor data to make that call.