Design of low cost instrumentation to measure flow and concentration of a copper metallurgical slurry

An instrumentation system with a special pipe inserted in the circuit section that measures the particle sizes in the hydrocyclone on an ore grinding classification system was designed. The instrumentation developed uses a set of ultrasonic transducers which detect either shifts of frequency to measure the flow or attenuation of the signal to measure the concentration of a solid in a copper metallurgical slurry. Real-time measurements of flow and solid concentration make possible the control of the size of the ore particles which go into a flotation cell. In this cell optimal particle size gives the maximum amount of mineral when the particles react with chemicals, thereby improving the yield of metal. The system offers not only a lower cost but also an accuracy comparable to that of instrumentation which measures only one of the two variables