ARTIFICIAL OPERATORS Who’s already automated

Many of Canada’s mills are small and old. With workforces of only two or three operators, there would be very little advantage in reducing operating costs through automation. So it seems safe to say the market for ai in milling is rather small. There are about 130 mineral processing mills in Canada. Half of them treat base metals and about a third are gold and silver mills. The others treat iron ore, uranium and niobium.

Almost half of the mills are rated at under 2,000 tonnes per day and only 22% can handle more than 10,000 tonnes per day. The rest fall between these tw o ranges and would probably be amenable to some form of automation.

Fully three quarters of the mills now operating in Canada were built prior to 1980. A surprising 36% of the nation’s gold mills were built before 1965.

A number of mills have recently undergone million- dollar programs to install computer process control systems designed to increase operator efficiency and reduce costs. The following are some of the more successful projects:

* At Noranda’s Geco mill, near Manitouage, Ont., a $4.7-million program to replace obsolete flotation cells and update process controls was completed last year. Production of 4,000 tons per day was maintained during the 2-year project. The program was highly successful, says Larry Urbanoski of Noranda, resulting in significant improvements in metallurgical recoveries and $1.4 million in additional revenues per year.

* Brenda Mines’ 22,000- tonne-per-day copper- molybdenum mill, in Peachland, B.C., has been involved with process controls since 1974. A total commitment to continued implementation has been the key to its success, says Robert Bradburn, Brenda’s concentrator superintendent.

* Bp Canada’s Selco Division awarded a $2-million contract to Bailey Controls of Burlington, Ont., to install process controls in its 6,650-tonne-per-day copper-zinc mill, near Joutel, Que. The project required a way to interface an Outokompu X-ray analyser to the control system and includes a remote communications link to Joutel and the head office in Toronto. “We’re not sure we could have achieved the metallurgical recoveries we’re getting without accurate process controls,” James Lauder, of Selbaie, says. The company would like to develop an in-house expert system for grinding and flotation.

* Rio Algom’s 7,000- tonne-per-day uranium mill, at Quirke Lake near Elliot Lake, Ont., was the last of the company’s three mills to be modernized. The $2.5-million program (again with Bailey Controls), completed last year, resulted in a 25% reduction in manpower and a 10% reduction in reagent costs. There was no loss of recoveries or production, says Gordon Derick of Rio Algom. A new on-line analyser, developed by Scintrex of Concord, Ont., will be installed this year.