Maximizing the Copper Output from an Electrowinning Plant

Is your copper electrowinning plant running at capacity?

Just about every industry today is trying to squeeze the most out of their assets in an effort to increase

production without major capital expenditure.

When merely achieving budget is no longer enough, leaders push to find areas where improvement can be made with the data they are given.

But what if the data given isn’t the right data and doesn’t provide the insight required?

With so many potential areas within a mine or plant to be monitored, wouldn’t you want to ensure that you receive the most important information possible at the right time in order to maximize production and minimize cost?

Electrowinning: Daily challenges in the cell house

Roughly 20% of global copper production comes from electrowinning (EW) plants.

They produce high quality copper cathode, with a minimum of energy consumption and at a maximum current efficiency.

To be able to do this, operators of EW plants need to keep the EW section running at the maximum rate while understanding the effects and interactions between common chemical and physical parameters affecting the production of copper.

• lack visibility and understanding•poor monitoring and control of copper concentration• iron concentration•manganese content•cobalt concentration•acid concentration•electrolyte temperature •solids in solution •cell flow

Common issues in an EW operation are often due to:

• lack visibility and understanding•poor monitoring and control of copper concentration• iron concentration•manganese content•cobalt concentration•acid concentration•electrolyte temperature •solids in solution •cell flow

Common issues in an EW operation are often due to:

just to name a few

In addition to these, there are physical plant issues.

anode and cathode maintenance and qualityshorts detection and correction

anode and cathode cell alignment

corrosion

poor stripping strategies

current density reliability issues at the crane and stripping machine

Stability, efficient production and optimization can be difficult to manage with so many influencing factors.

A proposed approach to asset optimization of a copper EW operation

2 Methodologies

1 Production OEE

based methodology, supported by software that monitors the operating conditions in such a way that it identifies the cause of any loss affecting production.

Production OEE is a unique, holistic, production

2 CPEM

Critical Process & Equipment Management (CPEM) supports your efforts to prevent losses from occurring at all in your cell-house. Critical Process Parameters are monitored and actions are taken when they are outside of defined control limits.

and to strike the right balance between them.

A very important tool used to help maximize efficiency and copper quality at all times

Software support for optimizing the operation of your critical electrowinning assets

It is critical to collect and monitor the right data, turn it into information, and automatically disseminate this information to the right people at the right time for them to take the appropriate action.

Today there is a software package available that supports Production OEE, Critical Process & Equipment

Management, Continuous Improvement via TARP, Dashboards,

and Operational Reportingall in

solution.

1

With Optimum, the asset optimization software by MPPIglobal, the electrowinning process is modelled and measured for valuable data to be

captured, classified & actioned.

Optimum identifies and manages production improvement activities while also driving operating costs down by controlling all critical inputs and running the asset at its maximum demonstrated rate.

To find out more about Optimum, you can visit the product page here