University of Queensland (UQ) has completed a three-year collaborative study that translated years of individual mineral processing advancements into an integrated, industry-ready package.
The project, titled AMIRA P9Q, developed mathematical modelling and computer simulation tools designed to optimise mineral processing practice for industry partners.
Led by the Sustainable Minerals Institute’s Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC), the AMIRA P9Q project brought together five universities, eleven industry partners and the Cooperative Research Centre for Optimising Resource Extraction (CRC ORE).
JKMRC Director, Professor Mohsen Yahyaei, led the project, which delivered cutting-edge models as well as key materials, and a project technical advisory team, to assist industry partners to implement them in practice.
“Ultimately, the aim was to enable industry to effectively implement the models in practice, reduce the time and effort required for utilising models to facilitate faster and easier simulation of various operating scenarios,” Dr Yahyaei said.
“The materials we created, which really are quite detailed and extensive, will also continue to be available to the companies through the AMIRA website, so they will enable quite a bit of self-learning in the future.
“As part of technology transfer, the project technical team provided continuous support to sponsors on the application of IES and Models regarding the implementation of the project models, testing the models in practical applications, collecting sponsors’ feedback on models and the IES platform.”
AMIRA P9Q is the latest in a long line of industry-sponsored AMIRA P9 projects, dating back to 1962.
Many of the influential simulation and design outputs produced by the series have been used around the world, including JKSimFloat, JKSimMet, JKSimBlast.
Dr Yahyaei said the strong industry ties UQ has developed over the years has been key to the success of AMIRA P9.
“There are plenty of other programs out there that have developed models, but without a close working relationship with industry they end up with no users,” Dr Yahyaei said.
“In P9Q, the mutually beneficial nature of that relationship is clear, because a significant part of the project was the training and technology transfer that happened throughout 2017 to 2020 – it is a satisfying task.”
