The ArcelorMittal Mont Wright concentrator, located in Quebec’s Labrador through region, has increased its processing capacity by adding a 7th production line. This additional line is composed of a 36-foot autogenous grinding mill feeding a three-stage spiral separation circuit, and is expected to process an additional 24 million tonnes of crude iron ore per year. The AG mill’s performances, however, varied significantly after start-up and commissioning. Many interventions were required in order to improve production, which nevertheless resulted in sub-optimal processing/operation performances. In order to address this issue, the Mont Wright metallurgical team, assisted by BBA, has proceeded to characterize and optimize the AG mill operational strategies during 2015. This project consisted in reviewing the AG mill operation strategies and in developing a fuzzy logic controller for the line 7 AG mill. This paper describes the successful development and implementation of the fuzzy logic controller to stabilize and increase the AG mill’s production. This new control logic manipulate mill feed tonnage, mill density and rotation speed in order to maximize tonnage while keeping the operating parameters within safe operation limits.
