Process Control in Flotation Plants

Abstract

The processing of ores often entails use of unit opera-tions such as grinding and flotation. Typical production requirements in mineral processing plants include the maximisation of throughput, maintenance of desired product quality and reduction of operating costs. For optimising plant performance, redesigning a process route is often impractical and the problem is best addressed through on-line optimisation which involves controlling key process parameters to achieve the desired production requirements. Process control, thus, plays a key role in on-line optim-isation. However, given the number of constraints/ variables and targets to be maintained simultaeously in a typical operation such as grinding or flotation, optimal performance can almost never be ensured through manual control. Automatic control is then the answer. There are several level of abstraction in automatic cont-rol. This paper describes various on-line anlysis system and automatic control systems available for various unit operations. Some of the process control systems adopted in HZL beneficiation plants to optimise the concentrator returns and more development efforts in pipeline to acq-uire model-based expert control systems to quest the thirst for modernisation by HZL are described in this paper.