Analysis of Industrial Grinding Circuits using PCA, PLS and Neural Networks

The use of variable rotation speed control in mineral grinding circuits is continuously increasing. High precision on-line particle size distribution measurement of the grinding product has also recently become available. These tools have increased the potential for the development of monitoring and optimization methods for grinding circuits. This paper presents some experiments to evaluate the effect of mill operating variables on the particle size distribution of the circuit product. In the evaluation the PCA, PLS and neural networks methods were used for analyzing industrial experiment data. The experiments have been carried out at the Kemi chromite concentrator plant of Outokumpu Chrome in northern Finland.