Geometallurgical modeling of generic mineral processing plants

Abstract

A method to simulate mineral processing plants is developed for geometallurgical modeling. A modular simulation is implemented, thus each operation that comprises the process is programmed independently considering a specific model, and later they are linked according to the plant configuration that has to be represented. For this purpose, Matlab Simulink is used as a tool to build the plant simulator. Two plant configurations were tested differing on their comminution stages arrangements. The results show that the program is capable of assimilating the plant variations, reporting differences in product compositions (size distribution, ore grades), and blending assessment obtained through residence time distribution (RTD) analysis. Future work might include mineral processing considering heterogeneous feeding properties in time, along with the inclusion of uncertainty in mineral-related variables.