Increase Metal Recovery by $8M
Major Iron Ore Mine in Brazil
A case study in real-time feedback of flotation kinetics to potentially increase metal recovery in 2-3% ($8MM)
Customer Challenge
Lack of Control Feedback per Unit Cell
Limited visibility on how different air flow rates influence the hydrodynamic operating regimes of their column cells.
Operators often don’t know how each of their flotation cells/columns are performing & contributing to the overall recoveries.
How We Helped
Real-time Virtual Sensors per Column Cell
Rapid implementation of a digital twin process for the Flotation circuit, involving the training of pre-built machine learning models.
Real-time Virtual Sensors for the gas hold-up, bubble size and surface area flux, and iron ore recovery in individual flotation cells.
The AI Optimizer’s ‘Value Driver’ was configured based on the client’s chosen ranges.
The Outcome
Metal Recovery Gains set to be >$8MM
Successfully implemented virtual sensors for the Flotation circuit
1-2% increase in recovery for column cells at on-spec grade through the combination of Virtual Sensors & flotation physics using Scientific AI.
Mass Balance and Mass Flows per line within the system in real-time.
Discover how Flotation Optimization can be applied to your operation
Mine to Market: Value Chain Optimization
The Stockpile & Inventory Optimization Application is one of a suite of real-time decision-making applications that use Scientific AI to optimize each process; from mine to market.
Our Material Handling model connects these applications to drive even greater efficiency.
Our process optimization apps can be deployed on a specific process bottleneck or expanded across the entire value chain.
They are powered by our Scientific AI Decision Intelligence Platform, brains.app.
Stockpile & Inventory Optimization
Grinding Optimization
Thickener Optimization
Flotation Optimization
Solvent Extraction (SX) Optimization
