Introduction

Metallurgical accounting is an essential feature of all efficient metallurgical operations. Not only is it used to determine the distribution of the various products of a concentrator, and the values contained in them, but it is also used to make decisions about the operation since the values of recovery and grade obtained from the accounting procedure are indications of process efficiency. To perform successful metallurgical accounting it is necessary to collect reliable data from the process. This chapter deals with the collection, analysis, and use of process data.

The essential requirements of a good accounting and control system are efficient and representative sampling of the process streams, upon which accurate analyses of the value components can be undertaken, and reliable and accurate measurement of the mass flow rate of important flowstreams.

Computer control of mineral processing plants requires continuous measurement of such parameters, and the development of real-time on-line sensors, such as magnetic flowmeters, nuclear density gauges and chemical and particle size analysers has made important contributions to the rapid developments in this field since the early 1970s, as has the increasing availability and reliability of cheap microprocessors.

Computer simulation is increasingly being used to aid circuit design and optimisation, and is likely to be a major future use of the computer in mineral processing.

A balanced approach to decision-making requires commercial data in addition to technical data. While a detailed discussion of commercial data collection is beyond the scope of this book, it is worth noting that matching...