Integrated advanced process control with a sag mill monitor instrument to optimize mill performance

摘要

Companía Minera Antapaccay (a Glencore Company) has constructed and is operating a concentrator with one of the largest volumetric capacity SAG mill in the world at its Antapaccay copper mine located in the Cusco region in southern Peru. The plant employs a semi-autogenous SABC-A grinding circuit comprising of a primary SAG mill and pebble crushing followed by a secondary grinding circuit including two ball mills and classification cyclone clusters. Plant design processing capacity is 70,000 tonnes per day, producing an average of 160,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate per year.To optimize the operation, ramp up production and prevent damages to the SAG mill liners, Cía. Minera Antapaccay contracted with FLSmidth to implement FLSmidth's advanced process control and advanced instrumentation suite of products, the ECS/ProcessExpert system and the Impactmeter. The ECS/ProcessExpert system is an advanced process control solution used to stabilize and then optimize key minerals processes, so they can achieve maximum efficiency and higher profitability. The Impactmeter is an advanced SAG mill performance monitoring instrument that has been developed jointly by FLSmidth, the Universidad de Santiago and Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María to measure load generated impacts and provide mill liner protection through the use of acoustic signals together with proprietary software.This paper demonstrates the operational benefits of an advanced control system with integrated advanced mill performance monitoring instrumentation. Production performance and circuit stability were significantly better when the circuit was operated with both systems ON. Undesirable impacts caused by steel balls striking the mill liners were minimized by integrating the Impactmeter signals with the ECS/ProcessExpert system, contributing significantly to prolonging liner life, avoiding media degradation and extending production time between mill relining campaigns.