ELSEVIER Int. J. Miner. Process.

46 (1996) 231-244

Real-time material balance for flotation plants using

a least-squares recursive algorithm
Claude Bazin a, Mark Franklin b
a Dept. Mining and Metallurgy, L.acal University, Ste-Foy, Que., Canada
b Noranda Technology Centre, Pointe-Claire, Que., Canada

Received 4 June 1994; accepted 2 1 April 1995

Abstract

A method is proposed to perform on-line material balance of flotation circuits using on-stream
analyzer assays. The method uses a least-squares recursive algorithm derived from the node
imbalance method developed to perform steady-state mass balance. Results of the real-time
application of the method to a Canadian concentrator are presented and are in good agreement
with plant production data over a 32-day comparison period.

1. Introduction

Sensors are now widely used to monitor operation of flotation circuits. They usually
consist of magnetic flowmeters for slurry and reagents, densitometers, pH and tempera-
ture meters, level meters, and the most important for the flotation operator, the
on-stream analyzer (OSA). The analyzer provides assays of critical streams, such as
circuit feed, tails and concentrate streams. Assays are available on a 5 to 20 minutes
basis, depending upon the degree of stream multiplexing used in the plant.
The flotation operator is usually trained to adjust circuit operation according to the
metal assays provided by the analyzer or to some performance indices estimated from
these assays. Assays contain enough information to perform material balance to estimate
mass flsow rates and adjust assays to filter out some of the measurement errors. The
filtered data can then be used for the calculation of flotation performance indices
(Spring., 1992; Hodouin et al., 1993; Bazin et al., 1994). Bascur (1993) identified this
operation as the transformation of data into information. Results from real-time mass
balance can serve several purposes:

0301-7516/96/$15.00 0 1996 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

SSDI 0301-7516(95)00089-5
 Controlling reagent additions according to ratios of reagent dosage to solids flow rate
(Spring and Franklin, I99 1; Bazin and Perry, 1993):
Tracking problems of OSA calibration (Aldrich and Van Deventer, 1993) by compar-
ing measured and adjusted assays. An example is shown in the paper;
Calculations of performance indices such as recovery of valuable or non-valuable
species;
Development of model-based control strategies (Zaragoza and Herbs& 1987);
Improvement in the quality of data for process analysis and optimization (Bascur,
1993).

This paper presents the development of a recursive material balance method adapted
for the processing of OSA data in a real-time operating process computer. The paper is
divided into 2 sections. The first section shows the derivation of the Dynamic Node
Imbalance Method (DNIM) for the case of a single unit process and the second one
shows the application of the method to a Canadian copper-zinc concentrator.

2. Description of the method

2.1. Background

The purpose of an on-line material balance algorithm is to estimate mass flow rates
from OSA assays. This is depicted in Fig. 1 for a flotation unit (bank or circuit), where
assays are available for the feed, concentrate and tails streams. The solids and metals
conservation equations for the process shown in Fig. 1 at sampling time t are
respectively given by:

dMp*(t> =FJt)
-F,“(t) -F,*(t)
dt

dMp*(t>x,*;(t)
=F,*(t)x;(t) -F,*(t)x,*;(t) -F,*(t)x,T(t)
dt

where F stands for solids flow rate, M for the mass of solids in the plant and x for
metals content. Indices f, c, t and p stand for feed, concentrate, tails and plant, while
subscript i indicates a metal species. The superscript * indicates the true value in a
statistical sense.
The objective of a material balance algorithm is to use available assays and mass
flow measurements to obtain the best estimates for the F * s and x * s. Several solutions
are available for steady-state systems, i.e. when derivatives of Eqs. (1) and (2) vanish
(Hodouin et al., 1985). Solutions for unsteady-state material balance were reviewed by
Hodouin et al. (1993) and belong to three categories:

Category I: assumes that there is no accumulation at time t. Steady-state conditions

are therefore always valid. The mass balance calculations are carried out using the most
 C. Bazin, M. Franklin/Int. J. Miner. Process. 46 (19961 231-244 233

E.tlmxTED~s~ommM
Z4lL.SAND CONCEVlXAlE SlRZ4bf.V

Fig. 1.Dynamic material balance for a single unit flowsheet.

recent assays provided by the OSA. The solution to the mass balance problem is
obtained according to three different approaches:
(A) By assuming steady-state for solids and by using sufficient metals to solve mass
balance equations (1) and (2). This leads to the n-product formulae (Wiegel, 1972). It
was however pointed out (Hodouin et al., 1993; Bazin et al., 1994, Spring, 1992) that
this approach can produce considerable scatter in the estimates;
(B) By assuming steady-state for solids and minimum accumulation of metals in the
plant;
(C) 13y assuming steady-state for solids and all assayed elements. This hypothesis
leads to the formulation of the constrained least-squares algorithm from which the
BILMAT (Hodouin et al., 198.5) and NORBAL (Spring, 1992) material balance
programs were derived as well as other algorithms reviewed by Reid et al. (1982);

Category 2: assumes steady-state balance over a period of time, called the window.
Solution is obtained by averaging measurements for the considered window and
processing average values according to one of the three approaches previously de-
scribed. The operation is carried out in two steps, averaging the assays and performing
material balance (Spring, 1992) or as a single operation using a recursive approach
(Hodouin et al., 1993; Bazin et al., 1994);

Category 3: includes a process model to account for accumulation within the plant.
Solution for a flotation plant can be obtained with the well-known Kalman filter
(Zaragoza and Herbst, 1987).

2.2. Dynamic node imbalance method for single unit

The algorithm described in this paper belongs to the second category and uses
condition B to solve the material balance in a recursive way. It is an extension of the
Node Imbalance Algorithm for material balancing (Hodouin et al., 1985). The algorithm
is developed in such a way that mass flow rates are estimated using:

O(t) = @(t- 1) +K(t)C(t)

234 C. B&z. M. Franklin /ht. J. Miner. Procrss. 46 llY961 231-244

where @(t> contains estimated mass flow rates at sampling time t, K is a gain factor
and C a correction term calculated from previous and current chemical OSA assays. The
derivation of the algorithm is carried out for the single node flowsheet shown in Fig. 1.
The objective is to estimate average mass flow rates so that:

O=F&,;t,) -F&J,) -F,(r,;r,) (3)

where Fk(tO; tN) stands for the average mass flow rate in stream k from sampling
interval t0 to sampling interval I,, that defines the length of the window. An equal
weight can be given to the measurements from time index r, to r,. An exponentially
decreasing weight can also be used to reduce the importance of past information, by the
introduction of a forgetting factor, similar to the one commonly used in adaptive control
strategies (Astrom and Wittenmark, 1989).
Using @(r,,,) = F’,(t,; r,)/F,(t,; rN) and writing the species conservation equation
for sampling interval r, to r, gives for:

Sampling interval to:

[~&d -~&)I + @(rd[Uo) -~cd~o)l =edrd Species1

[~&,) -+(hJ] + %d[ xti(ro)

-xcibd] = 4b> Species
i
[+OJ -~Ab)l + @(4d[4fo) -x~~(GJ~
=GJ Speciesn

Sampling interval r, (r, < r, < r,):

[ 44) -xtd4d1+ @(h&Wd -~&)l =edtJ Species1

[.+(4,) -44)] + @(G[+(rr> -x&)1 =+,I Speciesi

[44) -x,,(fdl + @hJ[Md -T&JI =44) Speciesn

Sampling interval r, :

[X&d -4hJl -~&~)1 =edh) Speciesl

+ @(h>[4hJ

[.dd -4hJl + WdMcd -x&J =4hJ Speciesi

[4tN) -~,,,kJ + @(4d[4hJ -~(hJl =4h) Speciesn
where e,(r,> is the imbalance for species i at sampling time t,. The imbalance includes
accumulation within the plant as well as measurement errors. Using matrix algebra the
previous equations can be written:
 C. Bazin, M. Franklin /ht. J. Miner. Process. 46 (1996) 231-244 235

where:

edt,)

ei(tl>

%( t, )

-%(t!v)-XcdtN) 4cd

XtihJ -&ON) e;(tiY)

-4tN) -G2(tlv) %(t,v>

The weighted sum of square of imbalances is given by:

~Ttb/PthPth) = [Vd -X(t,)~(t,)l’Wtt,)[Y(t,)-xttN)@ttN)l

(4)
where the superscript T indicates a matrix transposition and W(t,) is a diagonal matrix
of weighting factors to account for measurement accuracy (Hodouin et al., 1985). In the
presence of important disturbances, true imbalances exist within the plant. The mini-
mization of the sum of the squares of the imbalances in such a case will obviously lead
to an approximate solution. Tracking of rapid disturbances requires the introduction of a
process model that can account for these true imbalances.
Eq. 4. is minimized by zeroing its derivative according to @(t,). This leads to the
standard weighted least-squares solution:

&J= -[X'(t,)W(t,)X(t,)l~'X'(t,)W(t,)
(5)
where the @(t,) is an estimate of @(t,), the average relative mass flow rate in the
concentrate stream for the time period {t,;t,}. The recursive solution of eq. 5 is obtained
by partitioning matrices X(t,>, Y(t,) and W(t,> according to:

xtt, - 1) 91 c
/iW(t,- 1) 0
1
I
p-
Y(t/v)==
I
X( tN) = I

I -I I
?? W(t,)=

av)f Y(cv) 0 w(t!v)

f
with h the forgetting factor and:

-%(t,) -xc,tt,

I
+,(t,) -Xt,(t,)
x(t,> = %i(lN)
GA t,)
-Xt;(t,)
- GA t,) [
.Y(tN) = XtittN) -xci(tN)

4t‘v) --%n(tN) i
236 C. Bn:irz. M. Franklin / 1~. J. Miner. Process. 46 (1996) 231-244

0
0 (6)
?!( 'N)
where the matrices x and y are calculated from the latest OSA assays for element i in
stream k. The introduction of the partitioned matrices into Eq. 5 leads to:

&(fN) = -[P-Q/- 1) +XT(tN)w(lh’)l(lN)]-’

’ [ XT(tN- ,)W(fN - l)Y(fN - ‘) +xT(tN)W(fN)Yh’Y)] (7)

where

P(tN- 1) = [hXT( t,- l)W(t,- l)X(t,- l)]_’

Using the matrix lemma inversion (e.g. Noble, 1969) it can be shown that:

P(tfv) = [x’(kW(GJWJl-’

=P(fhi- 1) -P(thi- l)X’(tN)[W(tN)X(tN)P(tN- l)XT(#

W&v)44v)WN- 1)
which in Eq. 7 becomes after some mathematics:

&fw) = &- 1) -K(t,)[y(t,) -x(t,)@(t,- 1)] (8)

with:

K(r,) =P(fN- l)X’(fN)[Az+w(tN)x(fN)P(tN- l)X’(#W(fN) (9)

P(tN) = [WV- 1) -W,)x(WYt,- 1)1/A (10)

where Z is the unit matrix. Eq. 8 is the recursive solution of Eq. 5.
The application of the mfthod is relatively straightforward. Firstly the procedure is
initialized with guesses for O(O). The forgetting factor is selected according the level of
adaptation required for the calculations. As a rule of thumb it can be said that as the
ratio of the residence time in the plant and the sampling interval increases, the forgetting
factor should be selected close to one. In the presence of significant measurement errors
it may be advantageous to use a forgetting factor close to 1.0. In most situations where
OSA sampling period ranges from 5 to 20 minutes, a value of 0.85 to 0.95 provides
sufficient adaptation, The matrix P(O) is initialized with the identity matrix. The first set
of assays is used to calculate matrices x(l) and y(l) according to Eq. 6. The gain
matrix K(1) is calculated using Eq. 9. Value of G(l) is then estimated using Eq. 8, and
matrix P(l) using Eq. 10. The procedure is repeated when a new set of assays becomes
available from the OSA.
Mass flow rates in the other streams of the circuit are calculated using Eq. 3. For
instance mass flow rates in the concentrate and tails streams are respectively given by:

&;t,) =&(t&)@(r‘J

&(t,;t,) =F&;t,) -F&t,)

 C. Bazin, M. Franklin /ht. J. Miner. Process. 46 (1996) 231-244 237

where IFf(t,; fhi) is for instance a moving average of the measured mill throughput. The
extension of the method to flowsheets with multiple units (nodes) is straightforward. It
requires to the rewrite material balance equations for each unit and to derive equations
for the calculation of matrices x(t) and y(t) of Eq. 9. The @(t,> becomes a vector
consisting of p - m - 1 elements, where p and m are respectively the numbers of
streams and nodes in the circuit. The matrix x(t) then consists of II rows and
p - m -- 1 columns.
Once solids flow rates are estimated from the material balance, measured assays can
be adjusted to ensure that metal conservation is verified within the flotation circuit. The
adjustment procedure is described elsewhere (Smith and Ichiyen, 1973).

3. ReaLtime application

The (described algorithm was implemented in the computer system of the concentrator
of Les Mines Matagami Division of Noranda Minerals, in Canada. The mine and
concentrator is located 300 km northwest of Val-d’Or in the province of Quebec. Mill
feed is provided by two mines located in the vicinity of the mill. In 1993 the milling rate
averaged 2400 tonnes per day, with ore grade of approximately 1% Cu, 13% Zn, with
significant amounts of silver and gold, recovered in the copper concentrate. Milling is
conventional with primary and secondary crushing, followed by primary and secondary
ball milling. The ground product is processed in a differential Cu-Zn flotation circuit,
with copper floated first, followed by zinc flotation. The flotation circuit is shown in
Fig. 2. ‘The copper and zinc circuits consist of a rougher bank followed respectively by
two and three stages of cleaning.
An Outokumpu Courier 30 provides copper, zinc and iron assays, at a 20 minutes
sampling period, for the streams marked with a dot in Fig. 2. X-ray counts are processed
by a PDP-11 to calculate metal assays that are sent to a FISHER PROVOX Distributed

Zn circuit feed t tail

+

P------ti Courier 30 t+----

PDP-I I
It

_
MU HIGII’WY
Fig. 2. Les Mines Matagami flotation circuit and computer system.
238 C. Bnzin, M. FronXlin / ht. J. Miner. Prowx 46 f 19961 231-244

Control System (DCS) and from there, to a data highway connected to operator consoles
and, to a Digital PVax-3000. The real-time mass balance program is written in
PASCAL and programmed into the PVax. Fig. 2 shows this architecture. The forgetting
factor (A) for the material balance was set to 0.9 to have a 5-hour window or
approximately 6 times the mean residence time in the circuit.
A routine was written to have the program waiting for new assays from all sampling
locations. The assaying sequence requires approximately 20 minutes. Recursive calcula-
tions are then performed on a 20 minute basis. Prior to processing, assays are firstly
validated by checking if they belong to the control interval given in Table 1. Outliers are

Time(h)

Fig. 3. OSA assays trends used to test the material balance program.
 C. Bazin, M. Franklin /ht. J. Miner. Process. 46 (1996) 231-244 239

replaced with the corresponding nominal assays of Table 1. A routine was also written
to disab’le the mass balance program in the case of a prolonged mill shut down.
In a first trial the program was allowed to run for three days with storage of estimated
flow rates, measured and adjusted assays. Fig. 3 shows the trends of some collected
assays ;and Fig. 4 shows the estimated mass flow rates in the streams of the circuit.
Estimated trends obtained by processing the 5-hour window averaged assays with
B1LMA.T (Hodouin et al., 1985) are also shown for sake of comparison. Except for the
zinc rougher concentrate, the two algorithms give similar mass flow estimates. The
discrepancy is due to a bias in the mill feed or zinc circuit feed zinc assays as shown in

I
6lo
1’ 20 40 60
nm 09

‘:j---
0 20

nm m
w 60

Fig. 4. Estimated mass flow rates

240 C. Ba,-in. M. Franklin / ht. J. Minen Process. 46 f 1996) 231-244

i!n circuit feed

Time (h)

Fig. 5. Detection of biased assays.

Fig. 5 that compares the measured and adjusted assays for these streams. The systematic
positive and negative adjustments of the assays is indicative of the presence of a bias.
Subsequent discussion with the plant metallurgist confirmed that there was a problem
with the calibration of the zinc circuit feed assays. This example illustrates the potential
application of the real-time material balance method for the validation of OSA calibra-
tion. A recent paper of Aldrich and Van Deventer (1993) also deals with the detection of
systematic errors.
Estimated solids flow rates and adjusted assays are also used to calculate the different
performance indices shown in Fig. 6. Copper recoveries in the copper rougher and
cleaners are shown in Fig. 6a. Fig. 6b shows variation of ratio of zinc to copper recovery
in the copper circuit rougher and cleaners. Results show a higher ratio or lower rejection
of zinc in the copper rougher from 45 to 55 hours, that could be responsible for the
lower copper concentrate grade observed for that period (Fig. 6~). Such on-line
performance indices may guide the operators in its decision to adjust pH or depressant
dosage. Fig. 6c shows the copper concentrate grade and circuit recovery as a function of

Table 1
Nominal assays and control interval
Copper

Stream Avg. Low high Avg. Low High Avg. Low High
Mill feed 25.0 13.8 36.3 1.0 0.2 1.7 13.0 9.0 23.0
Cu rougher cont. 30.0 21.0 39.0 6.5 2.8 10.0 15.0 8.3 21.8
Zn circuit feed 23.0 16.1 29.9 0.1 0.0 0.2 16.0 9.0 23.0
Cu cleaner tails 30.0 21.0 39.0 0.6 0.2 0.9 18.0 9.9 26.1
Cu concentrate 28.0 19.6 36.4 21.0 15.4 28.6 5.0 3.5 6.5
Zn rougher cont. 15.0 10.5 19.5 0.2 0.2 0.3 35.0 22.6 48.0
Zn rougher tails 30.0 21.7 40.3 0.1 0.1 0.1 0.6 0.3 0.9
Zn cleaner tails 30.0 3.2 60.8 0.3 0.0 0.5 4.0 0.4 1.6
Plant tails 30.0 21.0 39.0 0.1 0.0 0.1 2.1 0.6 1.5
Zn concentrate 9.0 5.0 13.1 0.3 0.2 0.4 53.0 41.0 60.0
 C. Bazin, M. Franklin /ht. J. Miner. Process. 46 (19961231-244 241

22

21

20

‘;; 19

cqpw cilcuit
20 16
60 20 40 66
lime i&Y(h) Tima indax (h)
‘Q

T
86.5 1.
g.
e 65.5
d-
I
I.

B: 64.5
..=

:;-

3 .I
I

63.5 I

.5
d> cu-te (%cu)

lime index(h)

Fig. 6. Calculated performance indices.

time. IFig. 6d shows the results on the grade-recovery map and Fig. 6e gives the
approximated copper Net Smelter Return per tonne of mill feed. A fictitious smelter
contract with a price of US$0.75/lb of copper and smelting charges of US$l 10.00 per
tonne of concentrate is used for the estimation. This information may be useful to
identify the best operating point for the copper circuit. Similar results can be readily
obtained for the zinc circuit as it is shown in Fig. 6f that gives the variation of zinc
recovery in the zinc rougher and cleaner.
The program was then left in operation for 32 consecutive days. Daily averages of the
242 C. Bu5n. M. Franklin / Int. J. Miner. Process. 46 (1996l 231-244

Table 2
Plant and real-time material balance daily concentrates production
Copper concentrate Zinc concentrate
Production Program Production Program

Number (days) 32 32 32 32
Average (t/d) 73.1 76.4 520.4 522.4
Std-Dev. (t/d) 12.1 13.2 106.3 112.8

material balance results were stored in a data bank from where they can be retrieved on
demand. To validate the program the obtained daily tonnages for the copper and zinc
concentrates were compared to the mill production balance results. The production
balance figures are obtained from samples collected by the operators and assayed in the
plant laboratory. Except for the mill throughput, that is provided by the rod mill feed
scale, the program and production balance results are therefore totally independent. The
estimated concentrate production from the program and the plant daily results are
compared in Table 2. The results are not statistically different and confirm the
applicability of the program to an industrial environment.
Results of this application demonstrate that the program is able to adequately estimate
average mass flow rates for medium and long term periods of operation. Results
however do not demonstrate the ability of the program for tracking rapid fluctuations of
solids composition and flow. An analysis using simulated data (Bazin et al., 1994) show
that rapid mass flow rate variations in some streams are not efficiently tracked by the
algorithm because of the length of the window. For an actual plant application such
evaluation is possible by comparing measurements from mass flowmeters to the
program estimated mass flow rates. The program is currently adapted to accept mass
flow rate measurements together with chemical assays. From there, it will be possible to
assess the ability of the program to track rapid variations of mass flow rates.

4. Conclusion

An recursive least-squares algorithm was developed to perform on-line material

balance for a flotation circuit using data provided by an on-stream-analyzer. A computer
program was written and implemented into the supervisory computer system of Les
Mines Matagami. Results of a 3-day run compare well with results of a well known
material balance program. Average results for a 32-day run compare very well with
daily production figures from the concentrator, confirming the applicability of the
method. Work is in progress to introduce mass flow rate measurements into the
algorithm and to examine the effect of measurements bias on mass flow estimates. It is
also planned to develop a method to automatically identify problems of calibration of
the on-stream-analyzer and to investigate application of estimated mass flow rates and
adjusted assays for the control of reagent addition.
 C. Bazin, M. Franklin /hr. J. Miner. Process. 46 (1996) 231-244 243

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge Les Mines Matagami and Noranda Minerals for
their sulpport and permission to publish this paper. The support and assistance provided
by Sylvain Duchesne, Claude Brochu and Roth Gagnon from Les Mines Matagami is
also acknowledged. The project is part of the Knowledge Based Automatic Control
(KBAC) project organized by the Mining Industry Technology Counsil of Canada
(MITEC) and funded by 10 sponsors from industry and research centres, and by a
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Counsil (NSERC) grant.

Appendix A. Principle of recursive calculations

When dealing with real-time data it is advantageous to minimize computation time

for the estimation of statistical parameters. Making the calculation recursive is advanta-
geous in two ways: It minimizes the required computer memory and computation time.
Adaptation is implemented into a recursive algorithm with the introduction of a
forgetting factor. The estimation of an average value is used to illustrate the application
of recursive calculations, i.e.:

X(N)=[x(N)+hx(N-l)+/PX(N-2)+~3X(N-3)+...+h%(O)]

/(1+ (N- 1)A) (Al)

where ixN) is the estimated average value for N measurements, noted x(i) and A a
forgetting factor. With a forgetting factor of 1.0, Eq. 1 is a standard averaging
procedure. As the forgetting factor decreases the averaging procedure gives more weight
to recent events and less on previous ones. Eq. 1 can be readily transformed into a more
convenient form by introducing the N - lth estimate:

i(N) =x(N- 1) +K(N)[x(N) -$N- l)] (A.2)

where 1<(N) is called the gain, and is calculated using:

K(N) = l/(1 +(N- 1)h)

Eq. 2 is the standard form of a recursive calculation including a forgetting factor. The
introduction of a N + lth measurement is done with a minimum of computation.
Recursive least-squares parameter estimation has the same general structure.

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