PROCESS DESIGN FOR GOLD ORES: A DIAGNOSTIC APPROACH

Vanessa M. Torres* , Arthur P. Chaves**, John A. Meech***

* Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, Brazil
** Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil
*** University of British Columbia, Canada

Abstract
Much careful work and thought are needed from the time an ore is discovered until a
marketable product is produced. Most of the time, incomplete or imprecise information on
the deposit has to be used on the decision of continuing or not the development and
implementation of the project. This paper presents a diagnostic methodology to deal with
gold projects at preliminary stages, with the development of "IntelliGold" - the expert
system for gold process design. A knowledge base on gold mineralogy and processing is
used to provide the user feasibility information on a given gold ore. Decision-makers can
have a preliminary, but reliable view of the mineral processing project, based on lab results
substantiated by mineralogical characterisation, operational issues, and economic analysis.

Introduction
Gold mining projects are still a rare opportunity in the minerals industry. They need relative
small investments and give high profitability and fast return on investment when compared
to other mineral projects [1].

The evolution of a gold mining project is a dynamic process. To expand or maintain gold
production, continuous development of new deposits and fast implementation of new
mining sites are needed. After the huge growth in gold production in the 1980's, resulting
from the gold price peak that occurred in the late 1970's, the gold industry in this decade is
faced with the mining of low grade and complex ores. Exhaustion of high grade and free-
milling gold reserves is generally followed by discovery of deposits with low grade and
complex mineralogy [2]. Therefore, it is relevant to attempt to optimise the development
process beginning with geological exploration and ending with production and
commercialisation, in order to reduce the time needed and increase profitability.

From the time of discovery until the first bar is poured, careful work and thought is needed.
Multidisciplinary input from the fields of geology, engineering (mining, chemical,
metallurgical, mechanical, electrical and civil), architecture, business administration,
sociology and biology will be required over many years until the project is finished.

Process design is one of the major issues. As simple and easily-extractable ores are almost
all exhausted, there is need for a consistent approach to deal with the paradoxical problem
of making a profit despite increasing complexity and decreasing or stagnant gold prices.

Process design for a gold ore should consider aspects of the ore genesis, mineralogical
characteristics, and ore behaviour in the available metallurgical processes, linkage with the
mining method, environmental impact, and economic issues. The type of work and
environment involved makes it an ideal environment to apply Artificial Intelligence tools
such as Expert Systems, Fuzzy Logic and Neural Networks [3].
Gold project development: imprecision, risk and decision making
Success of a new mine depends on several factors. Among them, a key factor is the answer
to a simple question: is it a "good project"? The answer however is far from simple,
especially in the preliminary stages. Its search is what we call a "feasibility study". From
the project start until the decision to implement the mine is made, most project work is an
interactive process of gathering information and evaluating the project feasibility. However,
as resources are often limited, the development should be performed gradually.

In the preliminary steps, the information available might be sufficient to classify the project
as a bad project, but almost never sufficient to ensure the project is a profitable one. The
boundary poor prospect/good prospect is fuzzy: the prospect can be clearly poor (e.g. there
is no gold in the ore, ore grade is too low, etc), possibly poor, possibly good and clearly
good. Figure 1 illustrates the fuzzy concept.

Clearly Possibly Possibly Clearly

Good Good poor Poor
i cs
nom

Implement Project Abandon

Start
eco

the project the project

Process Development

Figure 1 - Uncertainty on project development

Technical feasibility evaluation with the maximum degree of precision is only possible
when the detailed engineering project is finished. However, since the early stages of
research, crescent investments are needed and decisions are made between the development
stages. Table 1 illustrates the characteristics of the development stages of a gold project.

Table 1 - Development stages of mineral projects

Phase of Accumulated cost Information available Error in capital cost
development (% of total capital estimation
cost) (estimated - actual)
Preliminary negligible very uncertain, "order of from +40 to –20%
evaluation magnitude" evaluation
Conceptual project 0,6 to 1% uncertain, yet enough to outline from +20 to –12%
the project main characteristics
Basic engineering ~ 10% reliable geological and from +15 to –10%
metallurgical data, basic lay-outs
and equipment sizing
Detailed engineering ~ 100% final geological and metallurgical from + 7 to –5%
reports, detailed lay-outs and
 equipment specification

The use of diagnostic tools for gold process plant design

The need to evaluate potential gold resources in good time and with increased accuracy has
resulted in the development of diagnostic methodologies for gold ore testing at many
laboratories. These methodologies often include the use of standard tests and optimisation
procedures for cyanidation, flotation, gravity recovery and various leaching methods [4].

Because of this effort together with the continued evolution of new processes for refractory
ores, gold processing can be considered a separate organised subject within the field of
mineral processing. Good textbooks are available [5,6] and many papers are published each
year describing technology enhancements and potential breakthroughs.

As process design is one step in the design and evaluation of a gold project, we have
decided to integrate the relevant technological tests performed at each stage with additional
important data such as geology, mineralogy, economics and environmental issues. Our
plans are to build a system for use by multidisciplinary teams beginning with the discovery
of a new prospect.

An expert system for gold ores

A comprehensive expert system for gold ores, "IntelliGold", is being developed as a tool
for project development teams to use at both the preliminary evaluation and conceptual
project stages. The system integrates information and knowledge from geology/mineralogy,
processing and economics in an organised way. The two main features of the system are:

- an inference system able to recommend processing options for a specific ore and to
estimate costs and revenue even when the data are uncertain. The system will establish
the main risk factors contained in each recommendation to point out areas for continued
research and testing. By using this tool, the development team can be directed towards
fields that are more likely to increase profitability and decrease risk of failure.
Furthermore the system can be used to simulate different scenarios that the project may
experience during its development or operation (such as changes in gold price, ore
grade or discovery of new reserves);

- a hypertext document containing information about the state-of-the-art on gold

processing as well as case studies for different ores and flowsheets of existing plants, in
order to provide an easy and direct access to the information and related references.

The system is aimed at professionals involved in gold project development: geologists,

research engineers, project engineers and mineral economists. It can be used to provide
feedback to each area individually, as well as to assist the overall team when working
together in a workshop. It can also be used to evaluate acquisition of gold prospects or
partnerships and joint ventures. Finally, the system is very useful to train new professionals
in gold processing.

From ore and deposit characteristics collected during preliminary geological investigations,
decision rules are applied to choose the potentially better processing options for the ore.
Then the unit operations to be used in these flowsheets are gathered together and sized.
With the process routes defined, cost and revenue calculations are performed using existing
models or historical data. These options are then classified according to their potential
return and associated risk. At the same time, the user can access a hypertext document
containing information above the processes selected by the system, or retrieve information
on existing mines that use similar processes. The user makes a decision on the optional
processes designed as follows: investigate further, abandon/hold or implement the project.
Figure 2 illustrates how the system is designed to work.

Ore/deposit
information

Decision rules,
fuzzy sets

Process routes
indication

Continue investigation
Flowsheet Hypertext with . Do research
alternatives literature review and . Gather more data
case studies

DECISION Abandon or
Cost and Mining method MAKING hold
revenues user input
calculation

Ranking of alternatives
Alternative NPV/IRR D.C. Main risk factors Implement
project

Figure 2 - System structure as perceived by the user

Comdale/X was chosen as the main AI inference engine for the system. The approach used
by this software defines the main variables as "keyword triplets" -- characterised by three
parts: object, attribute and data type. The triplets can be grouped into classes, which can be
organised in a hierarchical structure. The use of classes results in an organised structure
especially when dealing with many variables. The triplets can be either logical, numerical,
string or fuzzy. Fuzzy triplets use fuzzy logic to transform numerical measurements into a
facet called the degree of belief which varies from 0 (false) to 100 (true). Comdale/X uses
"rules" in a format IF-AND-OR-THEN-ELSE to perform its inferencing [7].

The system has been developed as a series of modules, such that when one module is
finished, the system is naturally expanded as new modules are developed and added. This
approach allows future application to deal with other ores, such as copper, iron and zinc.
The steps in our system are as follows:

- analysis of preliminary geological and/or assay information

(updating is allowed as well)
- prediction of mineralogical analysis of the deposit
- identification and verification of the ore zones
- metallurgical performance testwork and diagnostic-leaching studies
- selection of basic flowsheets for the ore type and characteristics
- development of unit operations within each flowsheet option selected
- sizing of equipment
- determination of revenue, capital and operating costs for each flowsheet
- determination of Internal Rate of Return and Net Present Value of the project
for each option
- establishment of risk issues within each option that require further work

All stages can be conducted even when data are absent within an internal stage. In this case,
the analysis is done by assuming results based on prior knowledge about the previous stage.
For example, if testwork has not yet been done to determine the metallurgical performance,
this data can be estimated from mineralogical analysis performed in the previous stage of
the system albeit at significantly reduced reliability. As data flows into the system during
the design process over time the degree of confidence (or belief) in the conclusions are
improved. Similarly the number of options presented will be decreased to focus on one or
two main process flowsheets.

Knowledge building in the system

To provide flowsheet design based on ore mineralogical and metallurgical data, the system
works linking information and knowledge, in a similar process to reasoning. Information is
represented by variables (or triplets), and knowledge is represented by rules. The system
uses around 1300 triplets and 600 rules to accomplish this task.

For a gold ore, different types, or classes, of information can be identified:

 information on the deposit and geology;
 information on the ore mineralogy;
 information on the behaviour of the ore in standard testing;
 information on the response of the ore for the several processes;
 the combination of the processes in process routes.

Ultimately, it is the behaviour of the ore that will define which processes can be used.

The ideal and final goal in the development of a gold project is to have complete
information on the processing of the ore, with all process variables and scale-up factors
determined. However, to achieve this, it is important, from the beginning of the
development, to infer, approximate or even guess the ore processing based on geology,
mineralogy, or behaviour in preliminary testwork.
The rules in the knowledge base for suggesting unit operations and selecting process routes
aim, therefore, to correlate aspects of geology, mineralogy and behaviour of the ore with
the many processes usually applied for gold ores.
The rules that link aspects of each class can be be structured into layers, since many
geology premises can indicate mineralogical characteristics of the ore, which in turn can
infer process behaviour, which then defines the processes to be tested and applied. As more
information is generated in each class, accuracy in the predictions improve. As testing
progresses through ore behaviour and process variable determination, the system should be
able to determine ultimately if the prospect is poor or good with a reasonable degree of
belief. Figure 3 represents the knowledge building process in the system.

Process routes
e
dg
le
ow
kn

combined

W1=1 W2= f ( sampling,

demonstration testwork)

inferred measured
ge
l ed
ow Process options
kn
combined

W1=1 W2= f ( sampling,

preliminary testwork)

inferred measured
e
dg
wle
o Behavior
kn

combined

W1=1 W2= f ( sampling,

equipment, precision)

inferred measured
e
dg
wle
o Mineralogy
kn

Geology

Figure 3 - Knowledge building

Inference and feedback

As it can be seen in Figure 3, each variable is a combination of inference and interpretation
of experimental data. The system works from geology upward to process route selection
accumulating and weighting the information in each level.

The weights used in the combination of inferred and measured triplets (variables) are
derived from the conditions in which the analysis and tests are made, as well as the
sampling quality. In this process, the following situations can occur:
 There is only a inferred certainty for a triplet: in this case, the combined certainty
will be the average of the inferred (which is different from 50) and the default measured
(which is 50), and, as a result, the confidence on the inferred value will be diminished
as there is no measure to verify it;
 There is only a measured certainty for a triplet: in the same way, the confidence will
be diminished because of the lack of a reason for that measurement. However, the
amortisation degree will be low if the weight of the measurement is high, which means
a good analysis on a representative sample, for instance;
 The certainty of the measured and inferred triplets are either both true or false:
the combined certainty will be anywhere between the measured and inferred triplets,
depending on the weights;
 The certainty of measured and inferred triplets is discordant - one is true and
other is false: the combined certainty would tend to the one with the highest weight. In
this case, the system alerts the user on the incompatibility of data, that can occur
because of either incorrect data (non-representative sampling, analysis error, incorrect
classification) or an unusual deposit/ore. It provides the user a chance to review the data
that is generating the incompatibility. If the incompatibility still occurs, the user then
has the ability to change weights.

The management of incompatible information is one way of the system to feedback input or
generated variables. Another source of feedback comes from the economic analysis, which
follows the flowsheet design stage.

Geology to mineralogy inference

The geology to mineralogy inference process is based on the characteristics of most
common gold deposits. The first step was to choose which classification to use: for the gold
ore types, the classification of Marsden [5] was used, and for deposit types the
classification proposed by Paterson [8].

The classification of deposit types is driven by the genesis of the deposit, i.e., geological
issues. In the other hand, the classification of ore types is driven by mixed geological and
mineralogical characteristics of the ore and, in the particular case of the "free-milling"
classification, the ore behaviour on cyanidation. In other words, the deposit types relates to
the terminology used by field geologists and the ore types refer to the terminology used by
petrography geologists (or mineralogists).

A review on literature and existing information on gold deposits and projects was
performed in order to derive common characteristics of ores from a given ore and deposit
type, resulting in typical ores for each classification. Of course, there are deposit types in
which a variety of ore types can occur, and in this case several options are given to the
system, but with low degrees of certainty.

The inferred mineralogy is combined with the experimental data using the weighting
process described previously.

Mineralogy to behaviour inference

The mineralogy to behaviour inference aims to provide a correlation between mineralogy
variables and ore metallurgical behaviour. This approach is very consistent since the
objective of every ore processing and metallurgy plant is essentially modifying physical
and chemical properties of the minerals contained in the ore and, ultimately, the selective
destruction of minerals to extract the valuable elements.

The system uses rules to instantiate the inferred behaviour triplets. More rules were
obtained from interviews with experts, author's experience and literature review.

One important issue is also the interpretation of experimental data from metallurgical
testwork. The expert system interprets the numeric results from testwork into linguistic
expressions in order to characterise process behaviour using fuzzy sets and rules. It
provides forms and interpretation rules for laboratory and pilot tests for the main unit
operations involved in flowsheet design comminution, gravity concentration, cyanidation,
flotation, diagnostic leaching, pre-oxidation and solution purification / gold recovery.

Selection of industrial processes

Once the basic ore behaviour is established, the next step in the expert system is to select
the industrial processes that can be applied to the ore. The selection of industrial processes,
in this step, considers the metallurgical behaviour together with general guidelines as usual
gold recovery ranges, throughput and head grade.

Selection of process routes and flowsheet design

After selecting which extraction, concentration and oxidation processes are suitable for
gold recovery from a specific ore, the expert system continues the consultation by building
flowsheet options for the ore processing.

To accomplish this, the system uses a combination of rules and default values to select,
which unit operations are to be used, from primary comminution to gold smelting. The first
step is to define different "options" of flowsheet design, since, at any given time, more than
one alternative for gold extraction may be possible.

In this case, it is important to enter to the economic evaluation module with more than one
flowsheet, since the final choice is highly dependent on economic, political or
environmental factors. Also, it is important to show to the user that more than one option is
available, personal experience can be used to add more certainty to one specific flowsheet
or another.

Metallurgical Report and Flowsheet drawing

The final step in the process selection module is the report generation and flowsheet
drawing procedure.

All the input data and results generated in the consultation of the process design module are
arranged in a hypertext report. The user can browse through the report, go to a specific page
and print the report.
Using rules and graphical files, it is possible to draw the process flowsheet corresponding
to each possible approach for the ore. The flowsheet was designed as a block diagram, with
each unit operation represented in a schematic way.
By clicking on each unit operation selected, the hypertext document will jump to a page
describing the basics of each unit operation/process, main applications, possible problems,
and a picture of an industrial unit.

Also, a complete flowsheet involving all possible unit operations are shown in a page for
consultation. The individual flowsheets are generated from then complete flowsheet. Figure
4 shows the complete flowsheet.

Figure 4 - Complete flowsheet used by the expert system

Economic evaluation of process routes

The process routes recommended by the system are used as the input to the economic
evaluation module.

The first step consists in calculate capital and operating costs for each unit operation
selected in the flowsheet, using a database of actual costs and adjustment factors. The
adjustment factors correct the database data for inflation (using M&S index), location,
usage of salvage equipment, among others.

After the cost calculation, the system calculates the revenues based on the reserve size,
estimated throughput, and gold grade and recovery, and calculates the expected Net Present
Value and Internal Rate of Return. At this point, the system also identifies the main sources
of uncertainty and risk in the project and indicates the user which parameters in the
testwork must be confirmed, optimised or reviewed. This provides a feedback to the project
and interactivity in the analysis.

Conclusions
The development of an expert system for process design for gold ores is justified by the
following reasons:

- process design is an important issue in the development of a gold project, since it

affects both technical and economical feasibility of exploiting a gold deposit; the co-
ordination of data and people required to conduct the preliminary design within a gold
project makes it a difficult task since often only uncertain information is available and
not all "experts" are available to discuss and detail the design;
- knowledge of gold processing options can be critical to provide input to the early
decision-making regarding continuing to explore and evaluating the prospect.

An expert system to assist on the process design for gold projects is being developed with
the aim to provide consistent methodology to integrate information from different areas and
provide estimates and inferences of possible process options and variables. It aims to
provide a basis for decision-making during the preliminary stage of a project even when
only information is incomplete or is not available.

Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank their supporting institutions and organisations: The
University of British Columbia, Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo and
Companhia Vale do Rio Doce which made possible the development of the system.

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