Review of historical simulator development in mineral
processing industry versus other processing industries
Valentina Liski1
1
Valentina Liski – Product Manager for Virtual Experience training, Outotec (Finland) Oy, Beneficiation business line,
Flotation and Automation product line, Email: Valentina.liski@outotec.com, Phone: +358 40 1497565
In recent years simulators have begun to make advances in minerals processing industry.
Simulator development in beneficiation industry has been slow until 2011-2012 after which
it started to accelerate. Similar development has been happening in chemical and
petrochemical industries some 30-40 years ago.
This study was undertaken in attempt to map out the future simulator development
landscape for mine-to-metal production chain. Terminology and historical advances of
simulators and automation solutions in chemical and petrochemical industries were
reviewed from literature. Development and the current state of automation and simulation
solutions along with their commercial maturity within minerals processing industry were
mainly gathered from expert experiences and information available from open source
publications. Special attention in review was put on following concentration processes:
grinding, flotation and dewatering.
Review work has shown that there are many ready simulation solutions within chemical and
petrochemical industries with proven sociological and economical impacts. These can be
directly utilized within minerals processing industry. Most significant differences for
simulation and automation lie in the vast variability of mineral feeds and wide-spread
combination of batch and continuous processes in mine-to-metal production chain. These
are the most significant factors why chemical static and dynamic simulators and higher level
automation solutions need first to be further developed or adopted before utilization in
minerals processing industry. In some areas like mine feed simulation from mine planning
software, an interface to transfer data between several simulators needs to be constructed
for best results.
Drawn conclusions include need for higher adaptability of simulators in minerals processing
industry as the means for automation system testing and predictive control. Also better
usability of simulators themselves would lead to the desired wider adaptation. Certain level
of standardization of terminology and both simulation and automation solutions would
additionally be advantageous for the acceptance by conservative minerals processing
industry.
Keywords: operator training simulator, dynamic simulation, static simulation, automation,
review.