Two cases of beneficiation plant control
To conclude the discussion on mineral processing plant control, two case studies are presented. One is taken from crushing and the other from grinding. Crushing Case Study In the new millennium crusher control applications in mineral processing will be largely restricted to primary and autogenous/semiautogenous pebble crusher applications. Nevertheless, there are still some crushing plants in operation, and from a pedagogical perspective, some interesting lessons can be learned from the control work that was performed in these types of operations. Figure1 provides the process and instrumentation layout required for the example. Because the secondary crushing circuit was proving to be a bottleneck for overall plant production, the general objective was to increase throughput. Fig1. Secondary crusher control process and instrumentation layout A number of control problems in this circuit rendered more traditional methods ineffective, including the following: 1....