Assessment of Technological Factors Affecting Specific Electricity Consumption in the Ore Grinding Process at Mining Enterprises Based on Factor Analysist

Abstract

Relevance: this article is devoted to assessing the technological factors affecting specific electricity consumption in the ore grinding process at mining enterprises. Variations in electricity consumption during ore grinding are associated with ore properties, the volume of processed ore, and the technological operating modes of the mills. Based on the integrated consideration of these factors, the main technological parameters affecting the energy efficiency of the ore grinding process were analyzed.

The goal: to identify the technological factors that have a significant effect on specific electricity consumption in the ore grinding process based on factor analysis and correlation relationships, as well as to classify them into priority groups. The interrelationships among the technological indicators and their relationship with the formation of specific electricity consumption were determined.

Methods: factor analysis, the scree plot criterion, and a correlation matrix were applied using the production and technological indicators of Hydrometallurgical Plant No. 7. The threshold value of the factor loading was set at 0.47. The study included the classification of technological indicators into factor groups, assessment of the degree of their influence on specific electricity consumption, and analysis of the correlation relationships among the considered indicators.

Results: the technological indicators were classified into four factor groups. It was established that the first four factors explain 61.25% of the total variance, while the first two factors account for 39.07%. Correlation relationships were evaluated between specific electricity consumption and mill productivity (r=-0.56), the mass fraction of total iron in the ore (r=-0.50), mill power consumption   (r=-0.46), and concentrate moisture content (r=0.45). As a result of the final analysis, seven key technological indicators having a significant effect on specific electricity consumption in the ore grinding process were identified.