Nornickel Teaches Computers to Smelt Ore
At a metallurgical plant, there is no way to look inside a furnace heated to 1,500°C (2,732°F) or a mill filled with ore. To change process settings, engineers have traditionally had to rely on trial and error. But that took time and money.
Nornickel is working to change that by building digital twins of its furnaces and mills. On a computer, engineers simulate every stage of production – how molten material flows, where gases travel, how ore is ground and where heat accumulates. They select the optimal operating conditions virtually and only then apply them at the actual plant.
Virtual Mineral Processing
Nornickel is creating digital twins of industrial equipment using mathematical and computer modeling, reproducing both the equipment itself and the processes occurring inside it on screen. That helps make metallurgical and mineral-processing operations more efficient without costly and often hazardous physical experiments.
The company has already created digital replicas of ball mills, where ore is ground, and flotation machines, where it is beneficiated. Virtual balls grind virtual ore, while algorithms analyze airflow distribution. This makes the invisible visible: engineers can see how gases actually move, where turbulence develops and how best to load a mill without wasting energy.
“We are systematically looking for ways to apply mathematical modeling to the company's industrial processes. We select areas where it can deliver an economic benefit. The method is often particularly relevant to equipment designed decades ago. Information obtained through computer simulations means we do not have to redesign the entire process chain but can modernize the process through targeted changes,” said Alexey Kuzin, head of additive technologies at the Technology Innovation Department of Nornickel Sputnik.
A Virtual Copy for Real-World Results
Digital replicas of production facilities are used by many industrial companies. Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works, for example, has deployed a digital twin of a blast furnace. The system models the movement of ore and coke and advises the operator on how to charge the raw materials to reduce coke consumption. West Siberian Iron and Steel Works has developed a similar IT system for controlling blast-furnace hot stoves, generating annual savings of 78 million rubles (about $920,000).
Gazprom Neft is developing an AI assistant that brings together more than 200 databases and digital models of oil and gas fields. These technologies support the production of more than half of the company's oil and gas. Moscow Power Engineering Institute and Transneft have developed similar systems for oil pumping stations that model electrical and hydraulic processes simultaneously.
Mechanical engineering offers examples as well. Transmashholding uses these tools for locomotives at every stage, from 3D design through operation. The principle is the same in each case: engineers first build a digital replica, run different scenarios on it, identify the best option and only then make changes on the actual shop floor.
Nornickel itself created 3D models of Kola MMC several years ago using laser scanning and drones. The company is now moving beyond basic visualization of buildings and structures to calculations of complex physical and chemical processes. A digital twin today is more than an attractive 3D image. It is a powerful computational system capable of predicting the behavior of molten material or forecasting equipment wear.
Digital Metallurgy
New technologies not only improve workplace safety and reduce accident risks in mining but also deliver economic benefits. The use of FDM printers for plastic 3D printing, for example, has already saved Nornickel about 200 million rubles (about $2.4 million). Production optimization cuts costs, making the company's products more competitive.
Notably, these tools can be used across industries. They have applications in mining, aircraft manufacturing, motorsports and energy. A key area of development in the coming years is expected to be the integration of digital twins with artificial intelligence and big data. Companies are moving from simply describing physical assets to creating systems capable of making decisions on their own. Nornickel's advances in digital metallurgy are helping shape Russia's technological sovereignty for years to come.
