The concept of lights-out process control is explored in this work (specifically pertaining to the minerals processing industry). The term is derived from lights-out manufacturing, which is used in discrete component manufacturing to describe a fully automated production line, i.e. with no human intervention. Lights-out process control is therefore defined as the fully autonomous operation of a processing plant (as achieved through automatic process control), without operator interaction. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Electrical, Electronic and Computer Engineering / PhD / Unrestricted