Designing An Information Management System For Mineral Processing Plants

The design of an information management system (IMS) for a mineral processing plant requires prior consideration of many factors, which can be broadly categorized into two domains, process plant considerations and IMS considerations. The process plant considerations include: plant characteristics, management and personnel issues, existing organizational standards and policies, and the level of existing hardware and software systems. The IMS considerations include: system functionality, system sizing and desired performance, hardware components, software components, and system support issues. All of these aspects must be addressed in order to achieve a functionally successful and cost effective system. The purpose of this paper is to lay out these design issues and, in doing so, to provide process engineers with a guideline with which to tailor a system that is best suited to their specific application. The paper is completed by presenting an approach that has been used in two Canadian concentrators. Both of these plants have incorporated MillEX, a software system designed specifically as the central component of a mineral processing IMS.