Concentrator Modeling Database Development and Simulation of Ispat Inland Plant

Abstract

The Ispat Inland plant processes two blends of ore during different time periods throughout the year. Although these two blends have mineralogical differences, they go through the same process. The major difference in the process becomes fineness of grind required to achieve desired level of liberation, which is in tum controlled by the rod mill feed rate. This created a unique opportunity for modeling the effect of mineralogy on separation equipment and measuring reliability of the simulator in predicting perfonnance of non-concentration equipment, such as hydrocyclones and fine screens, under different operating and feed conditions. While performance of concentration devices including magnetic separator, hydroseparator and flotation banks was expected to show dependence on variation in mineralogy, particularly on liberation size, performance of classification and screening devices would be largely independent of the liberation characteristics. Therefore, the models were expected to reasonably simulate the performance of these devices for a given blend when plant data from the other blend was available. On the other hand, performance of grinding mills is mostly governed by the grindability characteristics of a given ore type. Differences in mineralogy may or may not have significant effect on their performance, depending on whether or not change in mineralogy create significant variations in grindability. If such variation occurs, then the question is: how can it be simulated? This study could also provide a guideline for refining grinding models to account for such variations.