Shaft furnace roasting is widely used in the mineral concentration industry in China. Its key production quality index is magnetic tube recovery ratio (MTRR)

which cannot be measured online. Therefore

in practice MTRR is controlled by the operational optimal control technique. The design of operational optimal control strategy heavily relies on experiments conducted on real industrial process

to establish the dynamic response relationship between MTRR and the major control variables. Such practice is of high cost and risk. To solve this problem

this paper introduces a dynamic model of shaft furnace roasting process based on METSIM

a metallurgical process simulation package. The model connects to a process controller

which is similar to the control system used in practice

forming a semi-physical simulation system. The dynamic relationship between MTRR and the temperature of the burning chamber can be achieved by carrying out virtual simulation experiment on the proposed system. The model has been validated by real data. The proposed system can be used as a testing and experiment tool for the design of operational optimal control system.