Abstract:
Slurry density monitoring is of paramount importance in the industrial world. Most industries, especially cement and mineral
processing industries, employ this method to obtain good quality products. However, most Carbon-In-Leach (CIL) tanks of
gold processing industries do not use slurry density monitoring systems. As a result, many a time, agitation difficulties occur
when the slurry begins to harden. This paper, therefore, seeks to design an integrated anti-hardening system for CIL tanks,
with the aid of a microcontroller, to monitor the density of the slurry in order to prevent it from hardening. Slurry density
measurement was achieved with the help of a strain gauge pressure sensor and a couple of level sensors. Atmega 328p
microcontroller board was programmed to continuously compute the density of the slurry from values of pressure and level of
slurry in the tank indicated by the pressure and level sensors, respectively. The microcontroller responds to slurry hardening
by activating a light emitting diode and triggering the piezo buzzer when a set point is reached. The designed circuit was
successfully simulated using Proteus 8.2 design suite software to ascertain its functionality. Based on the results obtained, the
light emitting diode and piezo buzzer activated when the set point was reached. It was concluded that the anti-hardening system
is effective for constantly monitoring the density of the slurry to prevent it from hardening. It was also recommended that the
mining industries could employ the designed system to monitor the density in order to prevent hardening of slurry in CIL
tanks.
