Automation in copper flotation circuits

The variables of flotation are generally controlled by means of conventional devices. However, due to the physical and chemical properties of ore, their efficiency is relatively limited, if an optimal operation is sought for. Especially the varying composition of the raw ore is a disturbance input to which the plant should adapt rather than try to keep to fixed setpoints. Expert system or knowledge-based system are a branch of artificial intelligence which has recently gained an increasing interest. An expert control strategy may control the setpoints of process controllers and record the effects of such changes and of similar change made by the human operator, in order to decide on further actions, e.i. in flotation of such minerals which are not sensed by on-line analysis instrumentation, the implementation of new control logics has an obvious potential. This thesis describes the determination of the hierarchy of manipulated variables and expert rules by giving examples from Etibank Kure Copper Concentrator.