Page 185 - IMPC Education Book_low res

A ROADMAP FOR MINERALS PROCESSING EDUCATION

In this study, a virtual environment has been developed that simulates
a base metal concentrator, consisting of grinding and flotation circuits.
The purpose is to place students in an environment that allows them to
navigate through a virtual plant to understand its operation, equipment
functionality, and layout.
Virtual Reality Module

Simulated Concentrator

The virtual mineral processing plant was developed based on the
Northparkes copper concentrator, which is in central New South Wales,
Australia, approximately 300 km from west of Sydney. The concentrator has
two identical parallel modules, each consisting of grinding and conventional
flotation circuits. The ore is crushed and ground in a semi-autogenous
grinding mill, followed by two stages of ball milling, and a flash flotation
unit where high-grade fast-floating particles are removed. The flash flotation
tailings are processed in rougher, scavenger, cleaner, re-cleaner, and cleaner
scavenger banks to produce the final copper-gold concentrate. The ore has
a grade of approximately 1.4% copper and 0.4 g/t gold. The final concentrate
produced for each module assays 36–40% copper.

3D Mineral Processing Plant

In the current version of the virtual reality module, students are provided
with an overview of a mineral processing plant where the mined ore is
processed through a conventional grinding and froth flotation circuit to
produce a gold-rich copper concentrate for export. This is done through a
combination of 3D interactive models: 360° panoramas of the concentrator
and individual units, videos, and aerial photographs. Figures 1–5 show
screenshots from the module.

The module allows students to walk through the concentrator to any place
of interest. The tour provides the plant flowsheet to display the locations
of all major pieces of equipment, along with descriptions of the equipment
and technical information. Streams of material entering and leaving the

Interactive Visiualasation of a 173
Base Metal Concentrator