Towards a virtual metallurgical plant 2: Application of mineralogical data

Abstract

Modern metallurgical plants are experiencing the effects of rapid staff turnaround, which include the relearning of plant-specific nuances as well as the gradual attrition of this knowledge. The loss of experience impacts detrimentally on ramp-up time for new plants and on operating efficiencies for existing ones. An approach to assist resource companies with this issue entails building a suite of custom-built interactive models that combine to provide both a training and simulation framework to aid the decision-making process. Integration of process parameter calculations with computational fluid dynamic and 3D models can provide a powerful and effective base for the ongoing capture of metallurgical plant performance prediction and rapid knowledge transfer to newly assigned staff. This paper examines one component that could be considered the most critical in both plant design and operating practice. As more complex ores are being processed, an increased variety of mineral phases are being presented to extractive metallurgical unit operations in a given plant. The advent of automated mineralogical instruments is making large amounts of quantitative mineralogical data more readily available to the operator. Whilst a range of graphic and tabular reporting formats are often available, translation of this important information into the world of practical extractive metallurgical decision-making can require time and other resources that may not be readily available to operators focused on maintaining throughput and maintenance schedules. Routes for the integration of quantitative mineralogical data with process parameter calculations are considered, with the emphasis on providing simple yet effective practical models for specific extractive metallurgical applications. Case studies considered include: (i) variability in levels of gravity-recoverable gold in the mineral types at a gold plant, (ii) complex distribution of reactive sulfides and cyanide-soluble copper at a gold–copper plant and (iii) impact of ore types on acid consumption and other performance factors at a nickel laterite high-pressure acid leach plant.