Advanced Simulation for Semi-Autogenous Mill Systems: A Simplified Models Approach

Modelling and simulation of semi-autogenous (SAG) mills are valuable tools for helping to design control laws for a given application and subsequently to optimise its performance and process control. SAG mills (see Figure 1) are presently one of the most widely used alternatives in the field of mineral size reduction as a result of their advantages such as higher processing capacity, lower physical space requirements, and lower investment and maintenance costs, as compared to conventional circuits (Salazar, et al., 2009). Due to the size of SAG mills, pilot plants are usually used for research purposes to improve the control strategies. In cases where a pilot-scale is not available for test, simulations using models based on data from a wide range of full-scale plants are helpful and can significantly reduce risks for process control purposes. Simulations also provide an additional and very valuable crosscheck against the pilot results (Morell, 2004).