The objective of this research project was to develop a methodology to establish the potential of automated sorting for a minerals application. Such methodologies, have been developed for testwork in many established mineral processing disciplines. These techniques ensure that data is reproducible and that testing can be undertaken in a quick and efficient manner. Due to the relatively recent development of automated sorters as a mineral processing technique, such guidelines have yet to be established. The methodology developed was applied to two practical applications including the separation of a Ni/Cu sulphide ore. This experimentation also highlighted the advantages of multi-sensor sorting and illustrated a means by which sorters can be used as multi-output machines; generating a number of tailored concentrates for down-stream processing. This is in contrast to the traditional view of sorters as a simple binary, concentrate/waste pre-concentration technique. A further key result of the research was the emulation of expert-based training using unsupervised clustering techniques and neural networks for colour quantisation. These techniques add flexibility and value to sorters in the minerals industry as they do not require a trained expert and so allow machines to be optimised by mine operators as conditions vary. The techniques also have an advantage as they complete the task of colour quantisation in a fraction of the time taken for an expert and so lend themselves well to the quick and efficient determination of automated sorting for a minerals application. Future research should focus on the advancement and application of neural networks to colour quantisation in conjunction with tradition training methods Further to this research should concentrate on practical applications utilising a multi-sensor, multi-output approach to automated sorting.

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The contents of this dissertation fall into two broad areas: geology and history of geology. Although apparently unrelated, the two categories in fact parallel one another. The development of geological systems finds a mirror, on a shorter timescale, in the development of the human understanding of geological systems. The present state of a science - like the present state of an earth system - represents the concatenation of many subtle or evident processes and influences operating over time. Moreover, the events of the past condition the state of the present in science as well as in objects of scientific study. Thus, for instance, to understand why we now hold certain interpretations about the formation of sediment-hosted copper deposits, we must study not only the deposits themselves but the historical development and the philosophical concerns that guided and shaped modern thought about them. In this dissertation the geological and historical aspects are presented in sequence rather than juxtaposed. The geological section comes first, with three chapters detailing the formation and development of the Tenke-Fungurume Cu-Co district and the Central African Copperbelt, followed by another taking a broad view of the mineralogical, geochemical, and metallurgical implications of some of the geological features there. Then follows the history of geology: first two chapters on the role of Georgius Agricola in founding modern geology, and one on how it developed through the following centuries in tune with simultaneous developments in other sciences.

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