화학공학소재연구정보센터
Minerals Engineering, Vol.120, 118-126, 2018
Incorporation of geometallurgical modelling into long-term production planning
Strategic decisions to develop a mineral deposit are subject to geological uncertainty, due to the sparsity of drill core samples. The selection of metallurgical equipment is especially critical, since it restricts the processing options that are available to different ore blocks, even as the nature of the deposit is still highly uncertain. Current approaches for long-term mine planning are successful at addressing geological uncertainty, but do not adequately represent alternate modes of operation for the mineral processing plant, nor do they provide sufficient guidance for developing processing options. Nonetheless, recent developments in stochastic optimisation and computer data structures have resulted in a framework that can integrate operational modes into strategic mine planning algorithms. A logical next step is to incorporate geometallurgical models that relate mineralogical features to plant performance, as described in this paper.