Optimizing crushing plant performance using a dynamic simulation

Abstract

The primary crushing circuit at Premier Diamond Mine was simulated to improve operating costs and diamond recovery. Due to surges in certain feed streams a dynamic simulation was done. The applicability of the general-purpose simulator, Siman 4, for simulating a metallurgical plant is evaluated in this work. Due to the constraints of a discrete dynamic simulation the streams of material had to be divided into streams of entities (1 ton, 10 ton blocks of material) each with its own attributes. Because of these constraints the screen model, which is based on the model of Karra, and the crusher model, which is based on the Simon-Whiten model, had to be mathematically manipulated to allow the size distributions to be described by two attributes. These adjusted models were tested by comparing them with the plant data. After satisfactory validation of the plant model, it was used to predict alternatives plant operations. This included different screen aperture sizes, closed side settings for the crushers, tonnages and operating practices for the shuttle conveyor. The success of this method of simulation indicates that it could be used to simulate other metallurgical plants. This means that mining companies that have already invested in general-purpose simulators can use them to simulate their metallurgical operations.