Instrumentação e controle no processo de flotação convencional de minério de ferro

Abstract

Iron ore mining is one of the main economic activities of Brazil, and for achiving the spacifications of iron content demanded by the market, the iron ore needs to go through a process of concentration. Flotation is the most widespread technique to concentrate iron ore that has low iron content. This technique consists of separating particles trough the selective modification of their surface properties, considering that the particles must be liberated from each other within a suitable granulometric range. To ensure that the concentrate specifications and iron recovery are adjusted, a good control of the process is required. In order to perform this control some instruments and a proper control strategy are necessary. The process of conventional flotation of the iron ore consists of three steps: Desliming, conditioning and flotation, and for each of these steps, this paper presents common techniques of process control. With the implementation of these techniques it is possible to ensure the basic requirements for a high process efficiency, to increase productivity, reduce costs and keep the process continuous and automatic.