Automated monitoring delivers fine results at Paraburdoo
Staff reporter, 30 May 2012
Outotec PSI 500 analyser at Paraburdoo.
AUTOMATED particle size monitoring is reported to have boosted iron ore yield by the equivalent of more than 400,000 tonnes a year at Rio Tinto’s Paraburdoo operations in Western Australia.
The Outotec PSI 500 laser diffraction technology used at Paraburdoo replaced manual sampling, visual inspections and off-site sample analysis with a real-time system said to offer around-the-clock consistent, reliable sampling, monitoring and analysis. A statement from Outotec said the Paraburdoo concentrator installation was the first Australian application of the manufacturer’s laser diffraction technology on iron ore.
The concentrator is designed to process about 14 million tonnes per annum of fines feed and recover 84% of dry material.
According to Outotec automation applications engineer Brian McPherson, the Paraburdoo installation has attracted great interest from the iron ore industry worldwide since its initiation in 2009. “The results we can now demonstrate are outstanding,” he said. “While PSI 500 technology has been widely proven on other minerals, this is the first time it has been proven in Australia on iron ore, particularly on such a large scale with such excellent results.”
Paraburdoo’s concentrator is designed as a de-sliming plant where the -20μm material is removed from the total fines product. The fines material is typically high in alumina and silica. Iron ore product under 6.3mm is fed to a preparation screen, with the oversize reporting straight to product and the undersize reporting to the primary cyclones. The four modules in the Paraburdoo fines processing plant can operate simultaneously.
The PSI monitors the performance of cyclones to stop poor product going further down the process line or, as in this case, prevent valuable product being sent to waste disposal. The automation technology increases production value by enhancing output quality and reducing downtime. The PSI 500 analyser can cover particle size measurement in the 1-500um range.
“With 80 cyclones per stream, any coarse particles (containing iron ore) in the cyclone overflow were sent to the tails thickener and then on to the tailings dam, so there were opportunities to maximise the return in coarse particle monitoring with the PSI 500 at Paraburdoo,” McPherson said.
The PSI 500 uses laser diffraction technology to measure particle size and distribution. It can also carry out volumetric distribution. Particles passing through the beam create a scattering pattern on the detector to detect the particle size.
McPherson said laser diffraction gave a consistent particle size analysis result without any external calibration, with precision and repeatability important in particle size distribution measurement.
Since the technology was introduced cyclone overflow analysis has been monitored 24/7, with current results said to indicate that disruption can now be detected in three minutes, an improvement of more than 11 hours. If P80 is over 21μm, operators flush the system or have an operator check and/or flush a cyclone.
A web server provides access, via remote link, to diagnostic and primary measurement data logged to the system.
Outotec says the technology is being used to monitor grinding circuit products, regrind circuits, thickeners, mine backfill and slurry pipelines.
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