Improving Gold Mining Process Operations using

Advanced Control Systems

2022 IEEE 27th International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Factory Automation (ETFA) | 978-1-6654-9996-5/22/$31.00 ©2022 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/ETFA52439.2022.9921447

Wilber Blas Dr. Ramón Vilanova

Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering Electrical and Telecommunications Engineering
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain Barcelona, Spain
wilberhector.blas@e-campus.uab.cat ramon.vilanova@uab.cat

Abstract—The world class mining industry is operating mines length constraints) to provide a complete description of all the
under fundamental parameters as safe work, care environmental, equipment and control system architecture. Instead, to present
social commitments, and sustainable production. Based on named the overall plant layout, potential operational problems and
parameters, this paper exposes an initial statement analysis
of main variables of critical equipment from operational and the way they can be handled or, at least, preventive actions
maintenance aspects, showing what data better represents the op- accomplished. The main equipment of the plant is composed
erational condition of equipment; what data involves maintenance by primary crusher, belt conveyors, mills, autoclave units, large
analysis; what data can create an operational or environmental synchronous motors for compressors to get oxygen, and final
risk. The analysis is conducted in order to further continue by tailing disposal. A Simplified overview of the process plant
creating models to predict future behaviour and to allow for a
fast response from operator and the control system itself. One can be seen at figure 1.
of the main goals of the research includes Machine Learning
applications, with the goal to interact in easy way with operators
and responsibles of maintenance, teaching and training them
regarding interest variables taking advantage of the industrial
PI System platform with all its resources.

I. I NTRODUCTION
The gold mining industry has several ways to process ore
to get the final product. The nature gives us mineral resources
and each mine operation is designed according to all benefits
that can achieve.

Up to now the main management mode in gold mine is

Fig. 1. Overview of the process plant
not manual operation but far from being fully automated
and with some degree of autonomous decision. In such parts
The process plant for gold production has the following
where it heavily relies on human intervention, the collecting
areas:
statistics and reporting of producing data are accomplished
by human intervention may generate the accuracy of data • Crushing and conveying

to be low. Therefore the information is easy to be distorted • Ore grinding and Lime Plant

when it is conducted from bottom to up, thus the rational • Oxygen Plant and Autoclave

disposition in human resources, funds and material resources • Neutralization

and the management of the production process are easy to be • Carbon in Leach and Refinery

influenced. • Cyanide Destruction, Effluent Treatment Plant and Final

This paper scenario is the gold mine of Pueblo Viejo located
in Dominican Republic. In order to have an idea of the size
and production capacity, the gold mine of 800,000 oz of gold
per year is managing an average of gold mine of 41,000
tons per day of ore to produce gold. It is actually equipped
with an Emerson Process Management DeltaV 14.3 control
system. Filed level is equipped with Rockwell Automation,
General Electric controllers as well as ABB for auxiliary
systems. It is not he goal of this paper (also because of paper
Tailing
each area operates with different equipment and has its
specific equipment designed by type of process. This
investigation is focused in equipment which is considered
critical from the operational point of view.
Process operation starts in the crusher building, where
trucks unload ore from the mine. At this point, ore is reduced
and transported to the next stage, using apron feeders, belt
conveyors, stockpile, and bulldozers when necessary. process

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Fig. 2. Crusher Circuit and Belt Conveyor
advances by grinds reduced ore with SAG Mill and Ball Mill,
classifying particles to deposit them to the grinding thickener.
The autoclave circuit receives grinding production, oxidising
it and feeding it to a neutralisation circuit. At the autoclave
circuit pure oxygen from Oxygen Plant is used, which has
five large compressors driven by large synchronous motors.
After this stages, slurry passes through several intermediate
processes until getting the final product and residual slurry is
eliminated. At a different level there are pH control systems
which are in charge of other circuits which have mills, belt
conveyors, silos, kiln, natural gas plant.
The rest of the paper presents the description of the most
representative process unit, providing essential information
about the process equipment, available data and initial work
conducted towards advanced and automated decision compo-
nents that are to be integrated into the actual control system
to facilitate operators work. The process units and conducted
work up to now on them are: (i) crushing circuit with electric
power predictor, (ii) belt conveyors .... All data that is shown
in this paper is gotten from the control system through the PI
System and treated according to operations and maintenance.
II. C RUSHING C IRCUIT
The crushing circuit is composed by the cone crusher and
the Lube System and Mainshaft Position System (MPS). The
cone crusher can process ore up to 2,000 TPH in current
operations, see Figure 2 for the corresponding control panel.
The cone crusher is provided by Metso [1] , model SUPERIOR
MK II 42-65. It is driven by a Teco-Westinghouse Motor with
375 KW/500 HP, working at a voltage of 4000V. This gives
an idea of the importance of keeping this subsystem operating
properly as any contingency can generate a malfunction with
large repercussions and damage.
As a complement to the cone crusher, the Lube System and
Mainshaft Position System (MPS). This auxiliary system for
the gyratory crusher ensures mechanical lubrication. The Main
shaft Position System avoids unexpected part movement when
in operation, e.g., when trucks are unloading or during empty
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operation. At any moment of the process unit operation, the
electric motor is the equipment which senses the load on the
crusher. For electrical maintenance the electric performance
is the most important tool to monitor equipment conditions.
Using data and Machine Learning tools, the electric power is
predicted as shown in Figure 3.
Fig. 3. Electric Power Prediction
III. B ELT C ONVEYORS
Once the crushing circuit has done a reduction in the
size of the original ore, reduced ore is transported by belt
conveyors to the grinding stages. That equipment has me-
chanical components, electrical drives, as well as other basic
instrumentation needed in order ti operate it. Figure 1 includes
the operational screen with ore belt conveyor and pebble belt
conveyor. The common main failures are related to overloads,
plugged chutes, worn belts, cut belts, rocks on rollers [2] .
Equipped instrumentation measure the weight over the belt
conveyor, detect misalignment, speed, bearing temperatures.
On the basis of such measurements it is important to be able
to predict needed electrical current, to compare it with the real
one and introduce an element to stop the equipment in case of
necessity for a safe operation. In this case, a predictor of the
electrical current on the basis of actual operating conditions
has been elaborated. In this case, the electric motor that drives
the belt conveyor is a Toshiba, Frame 5010US, with a power
of 300 KW/400 HP working with a voltage of 4000V.
Fig. 4. Predict Electric Current and Bit Alert in yellow
Figure 4 shows the monitor of the predicted electrical
current and the real electric current, showing also an alert bit
(in yellow) that shows the presence of any king of disturbing

Fig. 5. Ore SAG Mill real data (blue) and expected data (brown)
effect in the operation for the ore SAG Mill belt conveyor. As it
can be seen in the figure, this prediction and alarm generation
has been introduced into the PI System [3]. From this point,
it can be linked to the alarm system of the DeltaV.
IV. G RINDING C IRCUIT
The grinding area has two mills to grind fresh ore mineral.
First stage has the SAG Mill, with two electrical motors
with mechanical coupling. Second stage has the Ball Mill
which grinds mineral and feeds cyclones to classify it before
it enters to the thickener. This equipment, SAG Mill and
Ball Mill, have configured screens in the PI Vision system
to monitor their operations. Taking advantage of PI Vision,
maintenance personnel can analyse the equipment status,
past events, trends in an easy manner for maintenance or
troubleshooting. however there is still the issue of introducing
predictive maintenance actions.
Ore SAG Mill: It is the main equipment in grinding process
and uses 5” metallic balls. The SAG Mill is an equipment
to grind big ore mineral from crusher circuit. It grinds ore
mineral using metallic balls and the same mineral to reduce
it up to size for next stage. The main issue for operators
when operate a mill is to avoid mill overloads. Mill operations
have several variables to manage in addition to ore: water,
bearing pressure, pebble recirculation, electrical power, speed,
among others significant parameters. Using process plant data,
initial prediction models for the pressure have been obtained
and inserted in the PI Asset Framework as trends prior to be
included in the DeltaV control system. Figure
Ore Ball Mill: It works as secondary grinding and prepare
slurry to the appropriate size to allow it to storage in the
autoclave feed tanks after the thickener. Ore SAG Mill reduces
fresh ore and discharges it into its pump box. From here, slurry
is being carried to another pump box which feeds cyclone
pumps in order to classify particles in cyclones.
Limestone SAG Mill: The lime is a very important material
in mineral processing. The process plant under study has this
resource in its site and the corresponding equipment for its
processing. Being the overall design similar to other mills, this
part of the investigation will show the bearing pressure model
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Fig. 6. Limestone SAG Mill trends with real (blue) and expected data from
the models (blue and red)
to establish limit values for the pressure and avoid possible
mill overload.
Several information were analysed in a similar way to the
Ore SAG Mill to work out the pressure model. Pressure models
were gotten by Machine Learning toolbox in MATLAB and
will be used to monitor and test the accuracy regarding real
pressure. Two pressure models are being considered and com-
pared with the real pressure. The goal is identifying changes
in pressure to avoid future overloads.
V. AUTOCLAVE C IRCUIT
The autoclaves are the most important equipment in the
process plant not only for getting minerals as well for the
operation and maintenance. There are four individual circuits
which have special equipment and materials. The piping lines
have severe service valves, titanium pipes and accessories,
agitators, digital instrumentation. Chemical reactions permit
getting gold and silver from sulfide compounds. During reac-
tions, temperatures reach 220◦ C to 230◦ C and pressures reach
3300KPa in average.
A. Data Analysis
Available information for this report will be focused only
in the AC150 autoclave and some conclusions that would be
applied to other autoclave circuits will be discussed. The anal-
ysis starts with information regarding operation periods and
scheduled maintenance, including non-scheduled maintenance.
This information was taken from historic data since 2014 up
to 2021. On the basis of such data, a model was elaborated
and assessed to compare it with real data. This model is a
relation among different fluid flows, slurry, water, and oxygen,
in addition to sulphide. The computed output is to provide the
days between maintenance, see Figure 7.
In what follows the main components of the autoclave
circuit are presented, providing technical details and, if it
applies, conducted data management operation.
Slurry Feed Pumps: The GEHO©TZPM pump [4] is
a crankshaft driven three cylinder single-acting piston di-
aphragm pump. The unique preformed GEHO©diaphragm
protects piston and liner from abrasive slurry contact. Abrasive
ore and tailings slurries and dirty mine water are handled

Fig. 7. Predicted Period Autoclave Maintenance and Real Period
highly efficiently (up to 96% and the pumps ensure a high
availability up to 98%). Electric Motor that drives the pump
is an ABB-HXR 400LB4, TEFC, F-2, Class F, Rise B,
with operating characteristics 460V, 60Hz, 3ph, 91-482HP
(360KW), 352-1752 RPM. By using Machine Learning a
regression model was found between speed and tonnage. This
model will monitor both variables, help to detect worn of
internal components, and determine if components time of life
is right.
Pipes: Transport of minerals is throughout by belt conveyors
and pipes. Pipes conduct mineral slurry in all process [5], [6],
[7], [8], [9].
Severe Service Valves: The key to manage slurry flows in
different stages is controlling severe service valves. There are
valves for slurry, water, steam, pressure relieve, oxygen which
are made to work under critical environmental and controlling
process flows when need [10].
Autoclave: The autoclave is a big equipment to oxidize
slurry and improve gold production. It is a very complex
equipment which is controlled managing pressure and tem-
perature. Work pressure is over 3,300 KPa and temperature is
220◦ C in average.
Agitators: There are seven agitators with variable speed
drives for each autoclave.Power control is the common control
loop for operation.
Vessel Flash: There are two vessel flash in autoclave output.
They receive oxidized slurry and connect next stage to Hot
Cure circuit.The slurry has between 1 pH or 2 pH.
Cyclone Vent Gas: There are two cyclones for vent gas and
their outputs are connected to collector tanks prior to Hot Cure
circuit-
Injection Tubes: Those pipes are inputs and outputs of
autoclave to control slurry, water, steam, and oxygen.
Safety Instrumented System: Severe service valves, tanks
are controlled equipment under safety instrumented system
control. Used signals are open/close commands and tank levels
[10].
VI. C ONCLUSIONS
This paper has presented an initial study oriented towards
the introduction of preventive decision in the mine gold
industry. The scenario is the gold mine of Pueblo Viejo located
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in Dominican Republic. This is a gold mine managing an
average of 41,000 tons per day of ore. At the present stage,
analysis of data availability has been concurred and data of
almost ten years is available in different operational scenarios.
The purpose is to use this data to analyse operational critical
equipment to get a deep knowledge regarding managing the
process plant. For each process unit, several variables data
sets are available and have been used to identify correlations
among several variables in the same process. On that basis,
Machine Learning models have been obtained, which show
good behaviour comparing expected/predicted values with the
real values. The investigation gets not only calculated models
for equipment as well for operational controls and maintenance
strategies. The use of PI System platform eases to monitor
calculated models and operational dashboards to be included
and finally introduce complementary assessment information
for process plant operators. Next steps will include more
elaborated models, inclusion of adaptive models that include
new data into consideration and, also, to cover other important
equipment not considered up to now.
VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work has received support from the Catalan Govern-
ment under Projects 2017 SGR 1202 and also by the Spanish
Government under MICINN projects PID2019-105434RB-
C33 co-funded with the European Union ERDF funds.
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