Optimizing the Rougher Flotation Process of Copper Ore

There are several mathematical models that search to optimize resources in different topics and areas. Chile being the largest copper producer in the world, where this natural resource is nonrenewable in the normal time frame, which means that over time these deposits will gradually have lower copper grades and then the cost of the process is increasing too. Our study begins with the challenge of finding the relevant parameters within this process and finally a mathematical model is proposed that optimizes the resources used, achieving greater recovery of the copper mineral, taking into account the inherent limitations of equipment, materials, conditions environmental, and others. The company seeks to maximize the law of copper concentrate and metallurgical recovery as an operation management strategy. Correlation is used to find the process variables that affect the grade copper and recovery. Some of the factors that are studied as input variables are the copper grade of the ore at the entrance of the flotation process, the amount of reagents and foaming agent used, and the granulometry, among others. To address this duplication of objectives, a linear regression approach is used subjected to restrictions associated with the permitted limits of each of the input variables. This model is validated with real data.