LKAB has started a new pelletization plant at Malmberget, the raw material is a mix from Kiruna and Malmberget. To achieve good products it is important to have a good control over the input material in the concentrators that is why the traceability of the process is a crucial factor. However, creating traceability in continuous processes imply vast challenges: process flows can be parallel, serial and reflux; sub processes can be continuous as well as batch-wise; large buffers; no interruptions in product handling. These challenges imply that loads of data from the material is needed for creating traceability. In this case the grinding sections have been in focus and the data are collected from the old and the new grinding sections. The main task is to find a way to make the traceability easy and practical. One way to reach good traceability would be to find a process mineralogical signature or identification. For having a good traceability we need information from the system. It is important to analyze and look into the variables that have a crucial importance to the process. By using Particle Texture analysis a good overview of how magnetite is liberated or associated to others minerals is shown. More important is that morphological data is produced for each mineral in the process. The number o variables made it difficult to compare the result, and by using multivariate analysis such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) it is possible to have a better insight from the collected data.
Godkänd; 2008; 20080316 (palle)