Capital and operating cost estimation for standard and negative pressure hydrocyclone

In feasibility study and planning of mill plants, the fast and reliable methods and tools for cost estimation have a key role. Hydrocyclones as one of the mineral classifiers have special importance because of high performance, specifically in the close circuit with mills. In this research, it was tried to provide a new model for estimation of capital and operating cost for these equipments. This model is developed applying uni-variate (UVR) and multivariate regression (MVR). In this regard, the technical variables affecting the costs along with their correct entry to the model are studied by proper statistical tests. In uni-variate cost function, diameter and capacity and in multivariate cost function both of them simultaneously have participated as independent variables. In order to eliminate the correlation between independent variables, the principal component analysis (PCA) has been benefited. This technique tries to omit the correlation between independent variables through the new linear relations. Then performance of each function was evaluated with mean absolute error rate and residual analysis. In average, the error rates were calculated as 6.75% and 4.08% for UVR and MVR functions, respectively; which are acceptable for feasibility studies. Also the normal probability plot of residuals confirms the appropriate performance of the models.