Design of Flotation Circuits Including Uncertainty and Water Efficiency

Abstract The objective of the present study was to develop a procedure for flotation circuit design that accounts for uncertainty and water efficiency. The design process considers two stages: 1) optimal process design without considering water consumption and 2) efficient use of water considering property integration. For the flotation circuit design, we applied stochastic programming. In the optimization problem, it is desired to find the optimal configuration, equipment design and operational conditions of a circuit with multiple stages (rougher, scavenger, cleaner). The problem includes uncertainty in the feed composition and in the metal price. Each uncertain parameter is characterized probabilistically using scenarios with different occurrence probabilities. Then, considering the solutions to different scenarios, property integration is used to design the water integration system. Three properties are included: pH, oxygen concentration, and conductivity. The application of the procedure to an example shows that including uncertainty in the design process can be useful for finding better designs. The property integration method can be extended for use in mineral processing. The novelty of this work is the integration of both methodologies and the application of these tools to mineral processing.