Digital Twins for Improved Efficiency in Minerals Processing

Research Project, 2018

The proposed project aims to investigate how digital twins can support and be used for control of minerals processing circuits in order to increase recovery and efficiency, improve resource utilization, reduce energy for a long term sustainable economic, environmental and social operation. The project will focus on how the digital twins should be built and how they are positioned in relation to supervision and control of processing plants. The pre-study aims to survey the state of the art which is today used in the industry and the most current technology sold by suppliers of systems similar to digital twins. In cooperation with the industrial partners, ABB, Boliden and LKAB a possible path forward will be described and a small scale demonstrator will be built. The study will reflect what the industry can use digital twins for in order to improve efficiency, sustainability and competiveness of assets and products. The study will also investigate how the introduction of the digital twin will change the working situation how it will affect gender equality and the experience at the workplace for both operators and process owners. The project also aims to be result in a strong network and a balanced constellation of project partners for submitting a proposal and to conduct a future full scale study.