Development of a Dynamic Population Balance Plant Simulator for Mineral Processing Circuits

Operational variables of a mineral processing circuit are subjected to different variations. Steady-statesimulation of processes provides an estimate of their ideal stable performance whereas their dynamicsimulation predicts the effects of the variations on the processes or their subsequent processes. In thispaper, a dynamic simulator containing some of the major equipment of mineral processing circuits(i.e. ball mill, cone crusher, screen, hydrocyclone, mechanical flotation cell, tank leaching andconveyor belt) was developed. The dynamic simulator of each mentioned unit was also developedaccording to population balance models with the help of MATLAB/Simulink environment and wasverified against the data from the literature. Comminution and separation sections were linked usingempirical models which correlate the separation and extraction kinetics to particle size. Applying thedeveloped simulator, the dynamic behavior of a grinding-leaching circuit was analyzed and the resultsshowed that such simulations are required for both designing and controlling the circuits.