INTEGRATED APPROACH TO MONITORING AND CONTROL OF MINERAL GRINDING PROCESSES

To enhance the operation of mineral grinding processes, a greater number of monitoring services and control schemes are nowadays being offered by the equipment manufacturers. In this paper an integrated approach to grinding process monitoring and control is formulated and the components of the integrated automation for typical grinding processes are proposed. Furthermore, the benefits of the process monitoring services are studied on the basis of a specific case study - the Outokumpu Chrome Kemi concentrator. Finally, the results are discussed and a new control scheme is outlined.