Mineral processing plant data reconciliation including mineral mass balance constraints

•Mineral processing plants performance depends on the ore mineral composition.•Mineral content is estimated using the plant solids flow rate and chemical assays.•The estimated mineral composition follows the mass conservation concept.•The plant performance is analyzed using balanced mineral composit...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Minerals engineering 2018-07, Vol.123, p.117-127
Main Authors: Sadeghi, Maryam, Hodouin, Daniel, Bazin, Claude
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Data reconciliation
Material balance
Mineral
Ore composition
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Summary:•Mineral processing plants performance depends on the ore mineral composition.•Mineral content is estimated using the plant solids flow rate and chemical assays.•The estimated mineral composition follows the mass conservation concept.•The plant performance is analyzed using balanced mineral composition. The operation of mineral processing units or plants is related to the mineral composition of the ore. However, unit performances are usually characterized in terms of metal content or recovery as this data is easier to be obtained rather than the mineral content. This paper presents a data reconciliation method that combines material balancing calculations and mineral stoichiometric information to estimate balanced mineral composition, chemical assays and flow rates in various streams of a mineral processing plant. The advantage of this method is evaluated by comparing the variance of the reconciled variables from this method to those obtained from usual data reconciliation methods. The estimated mineral composition leads to improved process performance evaluation.
ISSN:0892-6875
1872-9444
DOI:10.1016/j.mineng.2018.04.023