Performance Assessments of an Advanced Control System in an Iron Ore Industrial Grinding Circuit

Optimizing beneficiation processes of iron ore industry is essential to meet the increasing demand while coping with decreasing grade deposits. As grinding largely impacts the quality and production costs, the implementation of Advanced Process Control (APC) emerges as a solution to increase efficiency and operational stability. This study evaluates the improvements obtained with the application of an APC system in the ball griding circuit of the Mineração Usiminas industrial processing plant. The adopted methodology involved the collection and analysis of operational data with the system enabled and disabled, using statistical tests and literature review to support the analyses. The results indicate significant gains in throughput and stability. This work thus contributes to the assess the benefits of Advanced Process Control in an industrial operation.