Pergamon 0892-6875(00)00030-0

Minerals Engineering, Vol. 13, No. 5, pp. 485--495, 2000

2000 Elsevier Science Ltd All rights reserved 0892-6875/00/$ - see front matter

THE EFFECT OF GRINDING ON MILL PERFORMANCE AT DIVISION SALVADOR, CODELCO-CHILE*

J.B. YIANATOS , L.G. BERGI-I~ and J. AGUILERA
Chemical Engineering Department, Santa Maria University, Valparaiso, Chile. E-mail: j yianato@po_ui.utfsm.cl Divisi6n Salvador, Codelco-Chile, El Salvador, Chile (Received 9 November 1999; accepted 17 February 2000)

ABSTRACT
This paper presents a sensitivity analysis of the impact the ore grinding level (% +212 microns) has upon the rougher flotation performance, where the main copper losses are related to fine particles (less than 12 microns) with high content of soluble copper and coarse particles (larger than 212 microns) that are less liberated Firstly, a one year grinding data set, considering average daily shifts, was analysed and it was shown that the classical Bond correlation properly .describes the average trend of the grinding circuit operation in terms of ore tonnage, operational work index, product particle size dso and power availabit'ity. On the other hand, the rougher flotation kinetic was characterized from plant testing. Thus, copper and moly recoveries were correlated by Klimpel's model to describe the rougher flotation performance, at different particle size classes, in terms of design and operating variables. The copper recovery was found to be critically dependent on the ore grinding level, % +212 microns, and the soluble copper content. Using the grinding and flotation correlations, a plant simulator, that integrates the grinding and flotation capacities, was built. The simulator was validated with plant data for a range of ore tonnage, for different grinding levels and at two power levels. The simulator is useful in selecting the grinding reference, to identify critical requirements of instrumentation, bottlenecks limiting plant capacity, and to complement the supervisory control strategy. Thus, a powerful tool to estimate the best compromise between ore tonnage and grinding level, in order to maximize the values recovery, was established 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Keywords Grinding; flotation kinetics; particle size; modelling; simulation

INTRODUCTION
The complexity, of the copper sulphide ore at Divisi6n Salvador, Codelco-Chile, with low feed copper grades, 0.6-0.8%, as well as the actual low copper price,justify any efforton optimize the operating and control strategies.One of the key parameters used for control purposes is the grinding level,defmed as the ore particlepercentage largerthan 212 microns, because above this particlesize the copper recovery shows a sharp decrease.

* Presented at Minerals Engineering 99, Falmouth, Cornwall, U.K., September 1999

485

486

J . B . Yianatos et aL

E! Salvador concentrator

The mine operation is underground and the mill is located at 2600 m above sea level in the Andes Cordillera. The plant treats about 34000 tpd of ore containing 0.6-0.8% Cu and 0.025% Mo. The grinding circuit consists of five parallel sections. Four sections operate with a bar mill 3.05x4.27m (10'x14') and two ball mills 3.05x4.27m (10'x14'), in conventional arrangement, while the fifth section operates with a bar mill 4.12x5.49m (13.5'xl 8') and a single ball mill 5.03x5.79m (16.5'xl 9'). The flotation circuit consists of five parallel rougher flotation banks, each bank provided with 9 Wemco cells of 42.5 m 3 (1500 ft3), in arrangement 3-3-3. The cleaning stage consists of two rectangular columns (2x6x 13m) in parallel and two scavenger bankes, each provided with 8 Dorr-Oliver cells of 42.5 m 3 (1500 ft3), in arrangement 2-2-2-2. Figure I shows an example of the typical copper recovery distribution in the rougher flotation circuit, in terms of particle size at two grinding levels, 22.2% and 25.6% +212 microns. Both curves are similar and, for the range of interest, no significant effect of the grinding level upon the copper recovery per size class was observed. The main copper losses in rougher flotation are related to the presence of fine particles, less than 12 microns, where, despite the copper minerals being well liberated, there is a significant decrease in the particle-bubble collision efficiency. Also, about 90% of the freest class, less than 12 microns, was found as soluble copper. However, coarse particles larger than 212 microns cause significant losses due to the lack of liberation and froth transport limitations. This study focused on evaluating the impact the change of the grinding level (% of ore coarser than 212 microns) has upon the overall flotation recovery and upon the ore throughput (tpd). In this work, the overall flotation recovery was constrained to the rougher recovery, since the main copper losses occur there, while the cleaning stage copper recovery was more stable around 94-96%. 100

......

90
80 O 70

60

8
co

50 40
30 20 10 0

10

100

1000

Average particle size, microns Fig. l Copper recovery versus particle size.
GRINDING M O D E L L I N G BASED ON OPERATING V A R I A B L E S

In order to develop a grinding model based on operating variables, data from one year plant operation was used to link the ground product characteristics with the process variables, according to the following relationships,

Effectof grindingon millperformance 1--Energy-Ore throughput 2--Particle Size Diistdbution 3-Cumulative Metal Distribution

487

The first step wa:; the validation of the classical Bond's Model in order tO correlate power (kW'), ore throughput (tpd) ~nd grinding level (% +212 microns). Figure 2 shows the daily grinding data, from January tO December 1998, where the circuit operates at normal levels of utilization (95-98%) of the available power. During this time there was a period of 80 days where the grinding circuit was operated without the largest ball mill of the fifth section, which decreased by 20% the total available power. Figure 2 shows the operation at 100% and 80% power level, together with pre~lictions from Bond's model for an average mineral hardness (Work Index was relatively constant 14.0 + 0.4 kW/ton) and an average feed particle size ((IF = 11200 + 1200 microns). The typical operation of the mill at full power capacity was in the range of 32000-34000 tpd of mineral throughput, from January to May, while the grinding level varied from 18-23 % +212 microns. During the low power period, June to August, the mineral throughput was pushed up to 30000 tpd while the grinding level varied in the range 23-2"V % +212 microns. After restarting the operation at full power in September, the mineral throughput reached the higher levels 34000-37000 tpd by keeping the grinding levels at 23-26 % +212 microns.

40OOO

i
10

o Power 100% Power 80% Bond's Model ~ o

~ -_ ~
. ~ ~ ~ Oo

1 3

3oooo

25OOO
i I I
I

20000

15

20

25

30

35

Grinding.level, % +212 microns

Fig.2 Effect of grinding on mineral treatment at two power levels. A linear correlation between dso of the grinding product and the corresponding grinding level (% +212 microns) was observed for the whole range of grinding levels. Figure 3 shows the model fitting of grinding data from particle size distributions at different plant operating conditions, thus, the correlations used to link the power consumption, the ore throughput and the grinding level are,
Bond's model P T (tph) = (1)

10 Wi (1/~/dp - l/~/dr) where T is the ore throughput (tpd), P is the available power (kW), Wi is the Work Index (kWh/t), dF and tip are the feed and product sizes (80% passing) in microns, and

488 The 80% passing size model dp (microns) = 8.64 ( G ) + 38.62

J.B. Yianatoset al.

(2)

where G is the grinding level (% +212 microns).

32O 3OO .o
E

28O 26O

09
(/J

240 22O 20O 2O

i
I J

I
22 24 26 28 30 Grinding level, % +212 microns

i_J

32

Fig.3 Product passing size (ds0) versus grinding level (% +212 microns). The second step was the selection and fitting of a particle size distribution model in terms of the grinding level. For this purpose a Schuhmann's type model was adapted to describe the size distribution below the reference size (+212 microns). Thus, the size modulus di* was set equal to 212 microns, corresponding to the maximum size class, and the distribution modulus '~" was found to be almost constant and equal to 0.448 for the whole range of plant data. Figure 4 shows good agreement of the model with plant data for the whole range of grinding levels, and the resulting correlation was, The particle size distribution m o d e l Yi" = (I00 - G) (di/212) '44s where Yi"is the cumulative percent less than di size class and G is the grinding level (% +212 microns).
80

(3)

70
c

so

5o

2
-i

~
4O

22.2%+212microns
0 25.6% +212 microns

31.0%+212microns ~Model
0
50 100 150 200 250

30 Particle Size, microns

Fig.4 Feed size distribution model.

Effectof grinding on mill performance

489

The third step wa.,; the correlation of the metal distribution as a function of the feed size distribution, considering the good fitting of the correlation reported by Bazin et al. (1994) and Edwards and Vien [1999]. Figure 5 shows the experimental data from different plant operating conditions (M-I, M-2 and M3) and the model fitting.

' 1

0 . 0

. 20

. 40

. 60 80

I 100

CumulaUve % Passing Size

Fig.5 Cumulative copper distribution model. A cubic polynomial model was found to describe the plant data properly, which is in good agreement with previous observations, and the resulting correlation was,
The cumulative copper distribution model

Z i" = 1.112 Yi" + 0.00688 (Yi')2 - 0.00008 CYi')3

(4)

where Z{ is the curaulative copper distribution corresponding to Yi'. Equation (4) was constrained to ensure that the boundary conditions at Yf equal 0 and 100%, also correspond to Zi" equals 0 and 100 %, respectively. In summary, the simple models to describe the grinding operation are linked as shown in Figure 6.

W i, P

S, d*

Ao..A 3 X F

t,0 I
%+212 um

1
,.=1 MODEL IvI

z;
CUMULATIVE METAL DISTRIBUTION

POWER

PARTICLE SIZE DISTRIBUTION

Fig.6 Grinding plant simulation.

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J . B . Yianatos et al.

FLOTATION MODELLING BASED ON OPERATING VARIABLES The rougher circuit at Salvador consists of 5 parallel lines, each one provided with 3 banks of 3 mechanical cells, in series. The rougher flotation kinetics were described by Klimpel's model, which has been previously used by Cort6s et al. [1995] to describe other plant operations with a very good agreement. Klimpel's model considers a rectangular rate constant distribution, that allows for a more realistic and flexible approach, while keeping the parsimony principle of using the minimum number of parameters. In this case the parameters are two, the maximum rate constant kr~x and the maximum recovery at infinite time, R~. Figure 7 shows the flow of information. The input data considers the mineral throughput, feed grade and metal content of valuable minerals, solids percent, cumulative size and metal distribution and circuit characteristics such as the effective volume of each cell. The model output gives the cumulative recovery and grade, and the residence times along the rougher bank.

Roo

CUMULATIVE SIZE AND METAL DISTRIBUTIONS

:[

J 1
MODEL

k max

FLOTATION
"

RECOVERY GRADE

tpd, % Solids

CIRCUIT
CHARACTERISTICS

Fig.7 Rougher flotation simulation. The correlation to describe the flotation operation of N cells in series was, Klimpel's model

R i Plant = R ioo

1ki(N-1) x

(5)

where Ri Plant, and Ri, represent the actual plant recovery and the maximum plant recovery at infinite time, of the i species, ki is the maximum rate constant of the i species and x is the effective residence time of the pulp in one cell of the bank. The calculation of the cumulative recovery cell by cell along the bank allowed estimation of the effective residence time. Parameter estimation In order to estimate the model parameters, two approach were used. Firstly, kinetic sampling of the rougher flotation banks allowed adjustment of mass balances from assays of different species and size classes. Thus, the fitting of Klimpel's parameters for different size classes was developed from plant data. Figure 8 shows an example of the kinetic data per size class from plant tests, together with the model fitting. A second approach was to scale-up the Klimpel parameters from laboratory batch data. In this case, the batch tests that arc regularly performed in order to predict the behaviour of the future mineral during the

Effect of grinding on mill performance

491

next month, were 1ased to match the average results of the actual rougher flotation operation for the same month. Thus, scale-up factors were derived to predict the plant operating parameters from batch tests.

100
A

80
A [] "-45 um "-212+75 um "+212 um "-75+45 um Klimpel's Model
[]

~.

60

8
40
0

20

5 Cell r u b b e r

10

Fig.8 Rougher flotation kinetics per size classes.

Scale-up factors
The firing of the average rougher recovery with the recovery estimated from monthly batch tests, for 7 months, allowed tile following scale-up factors to be fitted
Rioo, plant =

0.989 Rioo, Lab 2.5

(6) (7)

ki, Plant = ki, Lab /

Effect of soluble c.opper A critical problem affecting flotation recovery is the presence of soluble copper. A mineralogical study showed that soluble copper was mainly related to the presence of oxide minerals and other non-sulphide complex species. Figure 9 shows the copper rougher recovery versus the ratio between soluble copper and total copper in the feed ore. It can be seen that the amount of soluble copper varies typically from 6 to 15% of the total copper in the feed, which causes significant variations (5-7%) in the overall copper recovery. In order to account for the presence of soluble copper in model predictions, laboratory batch tests were developed to characterize the kinetics of soluble copper and non-soluble copper. Figure 10 shows an example of experimental results from batch tests and the fitting of Klimpel's model for sulphide copper and soluble copper, in order to get the batch parameters. A final recovery higher than 90% for the sulphide copper and lower than 30% for the soluble copper was typically observed.

492

J.B. Yianatos et al.

00

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

90

8
n,
.-I

80
O

o
t.-1 O

70

rr

60

50

10

12

14

16

18

20

Ratio Soluble Cu / Total Cu, %

Fig.9 Effect of soluble copper on rougher flotation recovery.

100

8 S
e0
O f.)

Sulphide Cu

o Soluble Cu Klimpel

40
0 20 n o 0

/
0
0
I I I I I

10

15 Time, min

20

25

30

Fig. 10 Klimpel's model fit. Figure 11 shows an example of the rougher flotation simulation, cell by cell, using parameters from batch scale-up. In general, predictions were in good agreement with plant data in terms of the f'mal cumulative recovery and grade. Figure 12 shows the agreement between the rougher flotation operation, in terms of average copper recovery from 7 months, and the corresponding estimated copper recovery based on scale-up factors from batch data.

Effectof grindingon mill performance

493

100

50 45

80
eo

Reco:v. "

40
25 .,_

C-urn.
--e-- Cum. Grade

~o

840
2O

20 8
15 10 5
od( . . . . . . ,~ ~ ~ o

.10

Cell number
Fig. 11 Rougher flotation simulation.

86

84

8O

g.I

76 K 76

. 78

. 80

. 82 84 86

Rougher recovery, % Cu
Fig. 12 Rougher recovery prediction from scale-up.

EFFECT OF GRINDING ON M I L L PERFORMANCE The grinding and flotation models derived and validated for the whole range of plant data can be integrated to predict the effect of grinding on mill.performance. Figure 13 shows the rougher copper recovery (%) and the copper tonnage (tpd) recovered to the concentrate in terms of the grinding level (% +212 microns). It can be seen that a major change in the grinding level, from 30% to 20% +212 microns, increases the copper

494

J.B. Yianatoset al.

rougher recovery by 4.5%, while decreasing the copper production by 13.6%. Here, it can be seen that for the actual circuit characteristics and metal prices the operation at grinding levels less than 20% +212 microns was not economically optimal, due to the significant decrease in copper concentrate production, despite the increase in flotation recovery.

90 7 #

r22.0

--e-- Cu recov. %
88 - - - [ --o- Ca conc. tpd I
210 e"

20o
k..

0. 0.

o o
t~

84 82 80
78
r i

eO) n~

-' o

.180 "i
170

0.
O

160

15

25 Grinding level, % +212 microns

20

30

Fig. 13 Copper recovery and copper production versus grinding level. However, the circuit operation near the limit of circuit capacity increased the frequency of other potential troubles (overflow, blockage, shut-down) that cause waste of time and lower equipment utilization. In summary, the best operating point was found closer to 22-24% +212 microns, in a good compromise between copper recovery, copper production and the limiting capacities of the plant.

CONCLUSIONS Using simple grinding and flotation models, a simulator was built to integrate the grinding and flotation capacities.The simulator was validated with plant data for the range of typical operating conditions, on a one year period. The results were useful in selecting the proper grinding level (20-25% +212 microns) according to the mineral throughput required (30000-35000 tpd), to identify critical instrumentation (need for on-line particle size analysis) and circuit bottlenecks. Maximum copper production (tpd) was observed at the maximum circuit capacity (tpd), despite the decrease in the rougher copper recovery. A powerful tool to estimate the best compromise between the ore tonnage and the grinding level was established, in order to maximize values' production and benefits. A higher level of automation and a supervisory control strategy will soon help to improve the mill performance, by adding direct measurement of particle size, on-line x-ray analisis of the rougher copper concentrate and automation of the air and level control in rougher flotation.

Effectof grindingon millperformance ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

495

The authors are grateful to E1 Salvador Division of Codelco-Chile for providing access to their plant and for valuable assistance in the experimental work. Funding for process modelling and control research is provided by CONICYT, project Fondecyt 1990859, and Santa Maria University, project 992723.

REFERENCES

Bazin, C., Grant, R., Cooper, M. and Tessier, R., Prediction of metallurgical performances as a function of fineness of grind, In Proc. of the 26th Annual General Meeting of Canadian Mineral Processors, Ottawa, 1994 Edwards, R. and Vien, A., Application of a model based size-recovery methodology, In Control and Optimization in Minerals, Metals and Materials Processing, ed. D. Hodouin, C. Bazin and A. Desbiens, CIM, Quebec, 1999, pp.147-159 Cortes, F.L., Yianatos, J.B. and Urtubia, H.C., Characterization of the copper-moly collective flotation circuit at Divisi6n Andina, Codelco-Chile, In Copper'95: Mineral Processing and Environment, ed. A. Casali, G.S. Dobby, C. Molina and W. Thoburn, IIMCh-CIM-AIME, Santiago, Chile, 1995, pp. 37-51

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