Mill control and APC (Metso, FLSmidth, ABB, Weir class systems)
Load, power, feed and water reads, guarded writes
Integrations
It reads your concentrator. It does not replace it.
Orebex connects to the mill control, flotation APC, froth cameras, online analyzers, reagent dosing, cyclones, thickeners and filters, DCS and historians, LIMS and MES already in a concentrator and normalises their signals into one time-aligned circuit and lot record. Writes go back through the same controllers, guarded.
Illustrative scenario: Line 1 · SAG and ball circuit, rougher bank 2 · copper porphyry blend, one shift, one approval gate
Integrations
It speaks concentrator, not cloud
Orebex reads and writes through the systems already in the plant. No rip and replace, no parallel historian, no new HMI to learn. Vendor names are examples of systems found in concentrators, not certified integrations; connector availability is confirmed per site.
Flotation APC and expert optimisers (ABB Expert Optimizer, Metso ACT, Honeywell, Andritz class systems)
Air, level and reagent reads; supervised reagent writes
Froth cameras and froth-vision systems (Metso VisioFroth, Stone Three, JKTech class tools)
Camera streams fused by Frothix
Online XRF and particle-size analyzers (Malvern Panalytical, Thermo Fisher and CIDRA, Metso, FLSmidth PSI class systems)
Grade and P80 reads per stream
Collector, frother, depressant and flocculant dosing systems
Dose reads; supervised and bounded writes
Cyclone clusters, separators, thickeners, filters
Pressure, density, bed and cycle reads, guarded writes
Plant DCS tags and time-series historians
Backfill, replay, time alignment
LIMS and assay results
Delayed labels for every prediction
Concentrator MES, geometallurgy and optimisation tools (AVEVA, MineSense class systems, in-house miner systems)
Shift plans, blends, lot genealogy, disposition
Sampling robots, inspection rovers, safety PLCs
Route and task state inside interlocked limits
NVIDIA Jetson Orin at the bank and the mill, on-prem GPU in the plant
Inference where the circuit lives
Compatibility
Systems and what we do with them
Vendor names are examples of the systems found in concentrators, not certified integrations. Connector availability is confirmed during the shadow-mode weeks of a pilot.
| Category | Examples in the plant | What Orebex does |
|---|---|---|
| Comminution and mill control | Mill control and APC (Metso, FLSmidth, ABB, Weir class systems) | Load, power, feed and water reads, guarded writes |
| Flotation APC and expert systems | Flotation APC and expert optimisers (ABB Expert Optimizer, Metso ACT, Honeywell, Andritz class systems) | Air, level and reagent reads; supervised reagent writes |
| Froth vision | Froth cameras and froth-vision systems (Metso VisioFroth, Stone Three, JKTech class tools) | Camera streams fused by Frothix |
| Online analyzers | Online XRF and particle-size analyzers (Malvern Panalytical, Thermo Fisher and CIDRA, Metso, FLSmidth PSI class systems) | Grade and P80 reads per stream |
| Reagent dosing | Collector, frother, depressant and flocculant dosing systems | Dose reads; supervised and bounded writes |
| Classification and dewatering | Cyclone clusters, separators, thickeners, filters | Pressure, density, bed and cycle reads, guarded writes |
| DCS and historians | Plant DCS tags and time-series historians | Backfill, replay, time alignment |
| Lab assays | LIMS and assay results | Delayed labels for every prediction |
| Concentrator MES and geometallurgy | Concentrator MES, geometallurgy and optimisation tools (AVEVA, MineSense class systems, in-house miner systems) | Shift plans, blends, lot genealogy, disposition |
| Robots and safety | Sampling robots, inspection rovers, safety PLCs | Route and task state inside interlocked limits |
| Edge | NVIDIA Jetson Orin at the bank and the mill, on-prem GPU in the plant | Inference where the circuit lives |
Connection
How a circuit gets connected
The shadow-mode weeks of a pilot.
- Inventory. List the mill, flotation, analyzer, dosing, dewatering, DCS, LIMS and MES systems on the wedge circuit, with their interfaces.
- Read-only first. Connect every source read-only and build the time-aligned circuit and lot record. No writes exist yet.
- Baseline. Measure the agreed metric from the plant's own assays and meters.
- Declare the tags and the envelope. Agree the tag allow-list, limits, operating envelope and approvers before any write is enabled.
- Assist, then bounded. Writes begin on approval, then inside limits for low-risk loops, as the autonomy level is raised. Reagent-scheme changes stay supervised.
Boundaries
What Orebex deliberately does not do
Scope limits in version one.
- Replace the APC, DCS, safety system or interlocks. Orebex is a supervisory layer on top of them.
- Write to any tag that is not on the allow-list, or outside its declared limits and envelope.
- Change a reagent scheme without a named metallurgist's approval until the ore type is characterised.
- Run full multi-circuit autonomy across the whole concentrator in version one.
- Build long-tail integrations beyond the design partners' stacks before they are needed.
- Move ore-body data, schemes or process models across tenants.
Run timeline · scenario
One scenario run, step by step
Every Orebex run is an ordered, inspectable sequence. This is run_4b9e27 on Line 1 · SAG and ball circuit, rougher bank 2 · copper porphyry blend. Scenario completes in 10 steps with one approval gate. P80 held at 148 µm as the blend hardened, froth stability recovered on rougher bank 2 after an air trim, a collector-dose change was approved by the shift metallurgist, predicted recovery held inside the plan, lot C-20931 released with full genealogy.
run_4b9e27
Line 1 · SAG and ball circuit, rougher bank 2 · copper porphyry blend
illustrative scenario
SUCCEEDED
-
01
ingest.shift
SUCCEEDED
0.7 s
Concentrator Orchestrator · Pulled the shift plan from the concentrator MES: copper porphyry blend B-14, P80 target 150 µm, concentrate grade at or above 25% Cu, recovery target per the geometallurgy model, energy and water budgets. Locked the operating envelope for the blend.
-
02
twin.simulate
SUCCEEDED
58 s
Concentrator Twin · Simulated 32 candidate grind, air and reagent schemes on the as-run twin for the hardening blend, ranked on predicted recovery, concentrate grade, kWh per tonne and water per tonne. Two candidates breached the thickener bed limit and were discarded.
-
03
grind.setpoint
SUCCEEDED
3 m 40 s
Crush-and-Grind · SAG-1 feed trimmed 3% and cyclone water raised as load and power signatures read a harder feed. P80 from the particle-size analyzer held at 148 µm against the 150 µm target; mill power stayed inside the energy budget.
-
04
froth.read
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Grade-and-Froth · Twelve froth cameras and the online XRF on rougher bank 2 fused at the edge. Froth stability on cells 3 and 4 fell as the blend hardened; predicted recovery drifted 0.4 points below plan. Early warning published to the control agents.
-
05
approve.human
APPROVAL
1 m 12 s
Concentrator Orchestrator · Scheme #7 raises collector dose 6% on rougher bank 2, above the standing reagent scheme. Reagent-scheme changes stay supervised on this blend, so the step was held for the shift metallurgist and approved at 07:19:44.
-
06
float.dose
SUCCEEDED
2 m 05 s
Float-and-Reagent · Approved collector dose applied with an air trim of 4% down on cells 3 and 4 inside the envelope. Froth stability recovered within eight minutes; predicted recovery returned to plan with concentrate grade read at 25.6% Cu.
-
07
classify.cyclone
SUCCEEDED
42 s
Separate-and-Classify · One cyclone brought online in cluster 1 as feed density rose with the hardness change, holding overflow size and circulating load inside the plan.
-
08
dewater.thickener
SUCCEEDED
continuous
Thicken-and-Dewater · Tailings thickener TH-2 flocculant dose trimmed as bed pressure rose; underflow density held and overflow clarity stayed inside the water-recovery target.
-
09
optimise.targets
SUCCEEDED
18 s
Throughput-and-Recovery · Whole-plant targets recomputed for the hardened blend: feed rate, P80, air and reagent targets handed to the control agents with recovery, grade, energy and water inside the budget. The losing candidates and their scores are in the run record.
-
10
lot.release
SUCCEEDED
1 m 30 s
Quality-and-Conformance · Concentrate lot C-20931 released: genealogy written (blend, grind record, reagent and air moves, froth and grade reads, approvals, dewatering record, assays as they land) and dispositioned against the concentrate spec with cited evidence for the metallurgist's sign-off.
Tool calls · scenario
The agent shows its work
Every tool invocation, argument and result is written to an append-only, human-readable log, and every reasoning step is expandable. Nothing about a run is hidden from the plant.
- 07:00:02mes.read_plan({ line: "L1", blend: "B-14", shift: "day" })
- 07:00:02ok envelope locked · P80 150 µm · grade ≥ 25% Cu · energy and water budgets
- 07:00:03twin.simulate({ candidates: 32, horizon: "1 shift" })
- 07:01:01ok best scheme #7 · recovery on plan · 2 candidates discarded (thickener bed)
- 07:01:02policy.evaluate({ scheme: 7, autonomy: "L2+" })
- 07:01:02ok 8 writes permitted · collector_dose requires human approval
- 07:01:03mill.set_feed({ tag: "SAG1.FEED_TPH", delta: "-3%" })
- 07:04:43ok P80 148 µm · power inside budget · hardness index up
- 07:04:44froth.read_bank({ bank: "R2", cams: 12, xrf: true })
- 07:18:30froth stability falling · R2 cells 3, 4 · predicted recovery −0.4 pt
- 07:18:31approval.request({ action: "collector_dose", bank: "R2", delta: "+6%" })
- 07:19:44ok approved by shift metallurgist · logged
- 07:19:45reagent.set_dose({ bank: "R2", scheme: 7 })
- 07:19:46air.set_rate({ cells: [3, 4], delta: "-4%", within: "envelope" })
- 07:27:50ok froth stability recovered · grade 25.6% Cu · recovery back on plan
- 07:27:51cyclone.set_count({ cluster: "CL-1", online: "+1" })
- 07:28:33ok overflow size held · circulating load inside plan
- 07:28:34flocculant.set_dose({ thickener: "TH-2", delta: "-2%" })
- 07:40:10ok bed pressure steady · overflow clear · water recovery on target
- 07:40:11cuopt.solve_targets({ line: "L1", objective: "recovery, grade, energy, water" })
- 07:40:29ok targets handed to 4 agents · all inside budget
- 07:40:30mes.log_lot({ lot: "C-20931", genealogy: "full" })
- 07:42:00ok scenario complete · 10 steps · lot released
Reasoning trace
Plan, thought, action, observation, exactly as the orchestrator would record it.
GoalRun the day shift on line 1 inside the plan for blend B-14: P8…
Run the day shift on line 1 inside the plan for blend B-14: P80 at 150 µm, concentrate grade at or above 25% Cu, recovery maximised, energy and water inside budget.
PlanSimulate grind, air and reagent schemes on the twin first. Lea…
Simulate grind, air and reagent schemes on the twin first. Lead with the grind so the liberation size is right before flotation sees it, then read the froth, then dose. Hold any reagent-scheme change for a human.
ThoughtThe blend is hardening. Holding feed rate would coarsen P80 an…
The blend is hardening. Holding feed rate would coarsen P80 and under-liberate; the twin predicts a 3% feed trim with more cyclone water holds P80 at the cost of a little throughput, and that protecting liberation is worth more than the tonnes.
Actiontwin.simulate(candidates=32) returns scheme #7: SAG-1 feed dow…
twin.simulate(candidates=32) returns scheme #7: SAG-1 feed down 3%, cyclone water up, collector dose up 6% on rougher bank 2, air down 4% on cells 3 and 4.
ObservationScheme #7 predicts recovery on plan, grade 25.5% Cu and energy…
Scheme #7 predicts recovery on plan, grade 25.5% Cu and energy inside budget. Two candidates with higher predicted recovery pushed the tailings thickener past its bed limit and were discarded.
ActionExecute scheme #7: eight bounded writes permitted on grind, ai…
Execute scheme #7: eight bounded writes permitted on grind, air, cyclones and dewatering; the collector-dose write routed to the shift metallurgist.
ObservationFroth stability fell on cells 3 and 4 at 07:18:30 with predict…
Froth stability fell on cells 3 and 4 at 07:18:30 with predicted recovery 0.4 points under plan. The approved dose and the air trim recovered it within eight minutes; grade read 25.6% Cu.
OutcomeScenario complete. P80 held, grade on spec, recovery on plan, …
Scenario complete. P80 held, grade on spec, recovery on plan, lot C-20931 released with full genealogy.
Accelerated computing
Physical AI, at the bank and the mill
Froth changes in seconds and a shift of feed is gone before the assay lands. Perception has to be local, deterministic and fast, so Orebex runs GPU inference at the plant edge and keeps training, simulation and optimisation in the cloud or on-prem.
Edge perception
8 to 24 froth cameras per bank at 15 to 30 FPS plus online XRF, particle-size, pump, level, air, reagent, density and energy streams fused at the plant edge. Sub-250 ms froth inference and local fail-safe through a network outage are the design targets. Jetson Thor is planned.
Model serving
Froth, particle and mineralogy, recovery prediction, time-series anomaly and metallurgy retrieval models behind one orchestrator at the plant edge, 20 to 60 per site as a design target, with versioned canaries and rollback.
Training
Froth segmentation, bubble velocity and stability, grade and recovery prediction, ore hardness, grind-size response, reagent response and metallurgy assistants trained on froth video, analyzer readings, telemetry and metallurgist corrections. 2,000 to 8,000 GPU-hours per commodity model family is the design target once partner data exists.
Concentrator twin
Grinding, flotation, classification and dewatering simulated as-run against as-designed before the shift. GPU comminution and DEM, flotation and geometallurgy simulation is the workload; physics-informed surrogates with Modulus are planned so schemes rank at production cadence.
Synthetic data
Rare froth-collapse, feed-upset, mineralogy-shift, equipment-drift and camera-fouling cases generated and validated against real assay distributions before promotion. 50k to 250k scenarios per commodity and circuit class is the design target.
Optimisation
Throughput, energy, water and reagent allocation and the grade and recovery trade-off solved before the shift and during upset recovery, and handed to the control agents as targets.
Robot sampling and handling
Sampling routes, reagent tote inspection and inspection rovers trained and validated in simulation before they run on site. Assistive until the safety case is proven.
GPU ETL
Daily features from froth, analyzer, mill, flotation, dewatering and genealogy telemetry for retraining, drift detection and recovery, energy, water and reagent benchmarks.
Guardrails
An agent that can move a reagent pump needs a leash
Orebex writes to production equipment. Every capability is scoped, every write is policy-checked against the operating envelope, and every action is written to an append-only audit log the plant owns.
- Bounded action space. Each agent writes only to an explicit tag allow-list, inside per-tag rate and magnitude limits and the operating envelope for the blend.
- Policy engine before every write. Autonomy level, shift, ore type, interlock state, water and tailings constraints and metallurgist policy are evaluated before a setpoint moves.
- Human-in-the-loop gates. Reagent-scheme changes and lot release wait for a named approver. Robotics stays assistive until the site safety case is proven.
- Immutable audit log. Append-only and exportable. Every action records source evidence, the envelope applied, confidence, estimated recovery, grade, energy, water and reagent impact, rollback path, approver and lot scope.
- Hard fallback. Loss of the edge node, the network or a model returns control to the APC or DCS last known-good state. Interlocks are never in Orebex's path, and the edge runs fail-safe through a network outage.
- Tenant and ore-body isolation. Ore-body data, geometallurgy models, reagent schemes and recovery records never cross a customer boundary. On-prem and edge deployment is available for remote sites.
Compliance posture
| Item | Scope | Status |
|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type I | Cloud control plane | QUEUED Planned, first 6 months |
| SOC 2 Type II | Cloud control plane | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| SSO and RBAC | Console and approvals | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months |
| Environmental and water assurance packages | Recovery, energy, water and tailings evidence | QUEUED Planned, 6 to 12 months; not a certification claim |
| Standards-cited reasoning | ISO, ICMM, tailings and water governance documents | RUNNING In the design, every answer cites its source |
| Per-tenant and ore-body isolation | Ore data, schemes, models, memory | RUNNING In the design from day one |
| On-prem and plant-edge deployment | Remote and IP-sensitive sites | RUNNING Design option |
FAQ
Straight answers
The questions processing managers, metallurgists and sustainability leads ask in the first meeting.
Yes, but only within an explicit tag allow-list with per-tag rate and magnitude limits, inside the operating envelope for the blend, and only at the autonomy level your plant has set. Design partners start in shadow mode, where Orebex writes nothing. Reagent-scheme changes stay supervised by a named metallurgist until the ore type is characterised.
Control returns to the APC or DCS last known-good state. Orebex is a supervisory layer on top of the control systems and interlocks you already run, never a replacement for them, so an outage degrades the circuit to its current way of running, not to a stop. The edge is designed to run fail-safe through a network outage.
Advisory recommendations start from the twin and the shift plan in the first weeks. Froth, grade, recovery and grind-response prediction improve as circuit history and assay-labelled outcomes accumulate per ore type. The compute plan sizes training at 2,000 to 8,000 GPU-hours per commodity model family once partner data exists, a design target.
Only if you choose cloud training. Ore-body data, geometallurgy models, reagent schemes, process models and recovery records are isolated per tenant and never used to train another customer's models. A fully on-prem deployment at the plant edge is available for remote and IP-sensitive sites, and federated learning across sites is planned and waits on data-rights agreements.
You are, the same as with any control strategy, which is why every write is policy-checked, bounded, logged and reversible, and why anything above your risk threshold waits for a named approver. The audit log records the request, the evidence, the envelope applied and the human decision.
A paid pilot of 90 to 120 days on one grinding or flotation circuit, scoped to a single wedge with a success metric written into the order form: recovery gain, energy per tonne saved, water reduction or reagent per tonne. The first weeks baseline recovery, energy and water in shadow mode from your own assays and meters.
Get started
Check your stack
Start with one grinding or flotation circuit and one measurable baseline. A paid pilot on froth-vision recovery control, grind-size energy or reagent dosing shows the number before you commit further.