(1)What is the Paradigm Shift and Recipe for Long Term Success in Thickener Control?

摘要

Variability is inherent to any Mineral Processing operation due to various process conditionsrelated to people, equipment capability and reliability, and most of all to the natural variation in theassociated mineralogy. Process control systems have been developed for Mineral Plants, includingSAG mill control, flotation control, leaching control and thickener control. Some of these systemshave had good success, whilst others have had limited success. Manta Controls have developed acontrol system called the Manta Cube~R and have applied this technology on AG and SAG mills andother associated equipment in the grinding circuit, flotation circuits, leach circuits, CCD circuits andthickeners with great success over the long-term. The success of the Manta Cube~R system comesfrom an innovative approach to process control system design and with the philosophy that “truesuccess” will only be achieved if the system delivers the design benefit for the “life of the mine”.This paper describes a more holistic approach to process control so that the design benefit ismaintained for the life of mine rather than for a number of years. An application of the MantaThickener Cube system is used to demonstrate the overall performance over a ten-year period byadopting this holistic approach. As described in this paper, the performance of the system, tenyears after implementation is as per the original design, if not better.This is only the beginning of the journey to “true long term” success as defined by Manta Controlsbecause to date, only ten years of operation have passed with the operation of the Manta Cubesystems. This paper also describes a number of paradigm shifts, otherwise known as the “Recipesfor Success”, that are required by sites to maintain long term success of their process controlsystems.