Sensitivity analysis of a grinding-flotation plant with the USIM PAC

process simulator
Marie-Véronique DURANCE, Managing Director, Caspeo
Evgeny Chernykh, Managing Director, Computing System

Simulation is now widely used in many process industries. This paper presents the interest of process
simulation for studying the sensitivity of mineral processing plants. USIM PAC has been developed
since 1986 for the Mineral Processing sector. USIM PAC handles the design and optimization of entire
processing plants with a comprehensive set of mathematical models for unit operations that span from
crushing to refining. A variety of objective functions and tools, such as the simulation supervisor,
facilitate the global multi-criterion optimization. The supervisor of simulation uses the automation
concepts of sensors and actuators. At any place of the flowsheet, the user implements a “soft actuator”
by choosing the process parameter such as equipment size or settings, stream flowrate, percent solids
or d80, which can vary. Then, he can evaluate the effect of the variation of this value at any other place
of the flowsheet by inserting a “soft sensor”. Thus, by example, it becomes possible to look at the
evolution of the recoveries and/or the circulating loads when scanning an interval of the possible feed
flowrates.

Initial situation. The example presented here is built from several sets of plant data coming from
different plants and compiled to obtain realistic demonstration data. The flowsheet of the plant is
presented in Figure 1. It is a classical grinding flotation circuit processing a gold ore for producing a
gold concentrate. At the initial stage the flotation is fed by the hydrocyclones overflow without
regulation of the pulp density. The possibility to regulate the flotation feed density has been added as
an option.
Grinding flotation circuit of a gold ore
With percent solids
regulation
10 12
Ore feed Rougher
Water addition Final
flotation feed
1 3 7 6 tails
2 11
5
9 13
4
6 7 14
1 5
2 8
4 Without regulationConditioner
3
Rougher Rougher
15
concentrate
Hydrocyclone
Cleaner
Tails 18
8 16

9
Conditioner
17
Concentrate

19
10

Cleaner

Figure 1. Flowsheet of the plant

The principle is to modify some of the operating parameters and the number of cells in the flotation
circuit and to check the impact on the grade/recovery curve.

Main equipment sizes are given in Table 1. The circuit feed size distribution is given in Figure 2.
 Table 1. Main equipment sizes

Ball mill Diameter 7.9 m

Length 13.4 m
Hydrocyclones Number in parallel 10
Diameter 0.35 m
Feed nozzle diameter 0.14 m
Overflow nozzle diameter 0.14 m
Underflow nozzle diameter 0.07 m
Rougher cells Volume 100 m3
Cleaner cells Volume 5 m3

Figure 2. Feed size distribution

In the initial configuration, with the operating parameters given in Table 2, the concentrate has a grade
of 121 g/t Au with a recovery of 80.4 %. Detailed performances are given in table 3.

Table 2. Initial operating parameters

Input parameters Initial values

Load of ball in the ball mill 30 %
%-solids of the hydrocyclones feed 35 %
Number of cells in the rougher bank 10
Number of cells in the cleaner bank 5

Table 3. Initial performances

Performances and operating parameters Values

Ball mill circulating load 135 %
D80 of the cyclone overflow 82 µm
%-solids of the flotation feed (not regulated) 20.3 %
Residence time in the rougher bank 27.3 min
Residence time in the cleaner bank 14.1 min
Concentrate Au grade 121 g/t
Au recovery 76.8 %
Variation of the %-solids of the hydrocyclones feed. The supervisor is run to study the variation of the
percent solids of the hydrocyclones feed. A modification of the feed density will impact the pressure
drop in cyclones thus the overflow size distribution, as well as the overflow percent solids. In a first
run, this percent solids is set back to 20% for feeding the flotation using a density regulator. Like this,
the performances of the flotation circuit will only be impacted by its feed size distribution.
As highlighted in Figure 3, the user selects the model parameters of unit 3, percent solids regulator,
and indicates the range of variation, 30 to 45, around the initial value 35. The precision (step of the
scanning procedure) is set to 1, meaning that 16 simulations will be run. Several parameters could be
selected at the same time. However, for being able to understand the real role of each of them, it is
better, at least in a first stage, to test them one by one.

Figure 3. Selection of the soft actuator

In the dialog box of Figure 4, the user selects all the performances that must be followed.

Figure 4. Selection of the soft sensors

 Variation of performances versus hydrocyclone
feed %-solids
85.00 120.00
Gold recovery (%)
80.00 110.00

d80 (µm)
100.00
75.00
90.00
70.00
80.00
65.00 70.00
60.00 60.00
25.00 30.00 35.00 40.00 45.00 50.00
% solids of hydrocyclone feed

Gold recovery in concentrate (%) d80 of cyclone overflow (µm)

Figure 5. Impact of the hydrocyclones operation on the overflow d80 and

circuit gold recovery

The increase of pulp density for feeding hydrocyclones reduces the pressure drop thus increases the
d80 of the flotation feed (see Figure 5). However the overall gold recovery is not significantly impacted,
showing that this range of size is around the optimal liberation size.

Another supervisor cycle is run without regulating the flotation feed density. It appears that the
recovery is increasing when the feed pulp density increases (see Figure 6). This is due to a lower dilution
thus a higher residence time of the pulp in the flotation cells. The residence time is then the limiting
factor of the circuit.

Variation of performances versus hydrocyclone

feed %-solids
100 100
Gold recovery / %solids (%)

90
80
90
70
d80 (µm)

60
50 80
40
30
70
20
10
0 60
25 30 35 40 45 50
% solids of hydrocyclone feed
Au recovery (%) % solids of cyclone OF (%) d80 of cyclone OF (µm)

Figure 6. Impact of the hydrocyclones operation on the overflow d80 and

circuit gold recovery (no regulation)
Variation of the number of cells. The supervisor is run again for testing the modification of the number
of flotation cells. For this test the %-solids of the hydrocyclone feed is set to 40 % which corresponds
to a flotation feed with 25.3 % solids and a d80 of 85µm.

Grade-recovery curves for different cells

90

85
20 rougher
3 cleaning cells
cells
Au recovery (%)

80 4 cleaning cells
5 cleaning cells
75
6 cleaning cells
70 7 cleaning cells

65 10 rougher 8 cleaning cells

cells 9 cleaning cells
60
0 50 100 150 200 250 10 cleaning cells
Au Grade (g/t)

Figure 7. Evolution of the grade-recovery curves versus the number of cells

In Figure 7, each curve corresponds to a given number of cleaning cells (from 3 to 10). The different
points of a curve correspond to different numbers of rougher cells (from 10 to 20). It appears, as
anticipated, that the recovery largely depends on the number of roughing cells, while the evolution of
grades is more dependent on the number of cleaning cells. The economic impact has then to be
estimated considering the investment and operating costs of additional cells and the revenue
generated by higher recoveries and grades.

Conclusion. This paper shows the interest of simulation for exploring the sensitivity of a circuit. If the
final decision has to be taken considering economic factors, the technical elements provided by such
a tool largely assists the engineers in the selection of the best options.