After crushing, the next stage of mineral processing

is grinding
it is last stage of comminution.
Particle size reduction is achieved by a combination
of impact and abrasion.
Grinding/milling is performed in rotating cylindrical
vessels called tumbling mills.
They contain loose, crushing bodies (grinding
medium) which are large, hard and heavy relative to
the ore particles, but small in relation to the mill
volume.
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6: Chapter 2;
Mineral Processing
Grinding is usually performed wet although dry
operations are also possible. When the mill is
rotated the mixture of medium, ore and water (the
mill charge) is intimately mixed, the medium
comminuting the particles
Mechanisms of comminution:

impact/compression


chipping

Abrasion

G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing

Tumbling Mills
A mill is basically a horizontal, cylindrical shell with
renewable wearing liners and a charge of grinding
medium.
The cylinder is supported so that it rotates on its
axis on hollow trunnions attached to the end walls.
Feed material is fed to the mill continuously through
one end trunnion, the ground product leaving via
the other trunnion, although some ports on the
cylinder periphery may be used
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing









G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
At relatively low speeds the media tends to roll
down to the toe of the mill and abrasive
comminution occurs.
media is said to be cascading and this leads to
finer grinding but increased liner wear
At higher speed the medium is projected clear of
the charge parabolically before landing on the toe
of the shell
This is called cataracting and leads to
comminution by impact and a coarser end
product with reduced liner wear.

G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
optimum mill speed should result in both cascading
and cataracting
critical speed of the mill is speed at which
centrifuging occurs and the medium is carried
around in essentially a fixed position against the
shell
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Suppose a rod or ball of radius r (or d/2) is lifted up
the shell of a mill of radius R metres (or D/2),
revolving at a speed of N rev/min.
Let m be the mass of rod or ball and V be its linear
velocity.
At a point p when the ball abandons circular path
for parabolic path, the gravitational force of the ball
just balances the centrifugal force acting on it.
Thus;

Or
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
But

Therefore


The effective radius R = (D-d)/2
i.e.

critical speed of the mill occurs when = 0 i.e. cos
= 1



G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Therefore critical speed of tumbling mill is given by



Mills usually operate at 50-90% of the critical speed
to achieve optimum grinding and liner wear
There are 3 basic types of grinding mills rod mill,
ball mill and autogenous mill: based on the grinding
media

G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
ideal for coarse grinding.
Steel rods are used as grinding media
capable of taking feed as large as 50mm and
making a product as fine as 300m




Reduction ratios of rod mills range from 15-20 : 1

G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
The length of the cylindrical shell is 1.5 to 2.5 x
diameter and the rods are only a few cm shorter
than the shell length to prevent them from
turning so that they become wedged across the
diameter of the cylinder.
They produce a narrow size range which is
suitable feed to gravity concentrators, magnetic
separators and ball mills
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Used for final stage of comminution
steel balls are used as grinding media. Balls have
a greater surface area/unit weight than rods and
therefore are capable of fine grinding.
length of the cylindrical shell is 1 to 1.5 x diameter.
If ratio goes up to 3-5, then the mill is called a tube
mill.
Tube mills are usually used in dry operations to
grind cement, gypsum and phosphates and often
pebbles are used as the grinding medium

G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing





The discharge system of a ball mill can either be
grate discharge where pulp flows through the
openings of the grate and is lifted to the trunnion
opening. It produces a coarser product
mill overflow discharge where pulp overflows
through trunnion. Results in finer product but has
less energy efficiency






G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Ball mills are normally operated at 65-80% solids.
The average ball diameter,

Where d
p
average particle size
Grinding balls are usually made of forged or rolled
high C steel and consumption ranges between
0.1 to 1kg/t of ore depending on hardness of ore
and fineness of grinding required.
Medium consumption is one of the largest costs in
milling operations with up to 40% of total costs
and therefore good grinding operation is a
compromise between medium wear rate and
grinding efficiency.

0.5
b p
d kd

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TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Comminution is effected by the action of ore
particles on each other.
Autogenous mills are normally used for uniform ore
which is neither too hard nor too soft.
A variation of AG is semi autogenous mill (SAG) in
which the grinding medium is a combination of the
ore and a reduced load of steel balls.
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Advantages of SAG over conventional grinding
(on suitable ores) include:
lower capital costs
ability to handle wet and sticky material
lower manpower requirements
minimal grinding media expenses.
This method is the one used in marine
diamonds processing. Why not high load of
steel balls???
Other mills include vibratory mills (vibration of
shells), centrifugal mills (centrifugal force) and
tower mills (screwing effect)
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Feed in grinding operations can be wet or dry
Advantages of wet (over dry) grinding
lower power consumption per tonne of product
(why?)
higher capacity per unit mill volume (why?)
wet screening/classification is possible, for
close product control
environmentally friendly as dust is eliminated
handling and transportation is made simple by
use of pumps, pipes, launders
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Advantages of dry (over wet) grinding
reduced lining wear
does not alter the chemical nature of the ore
e.g. in the case of cement!
Suitable for minerals like NaCl that easily
dissolve in water
higher proportion of fines
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Grinding circuits are classified as open or closed
Open ckt: grinding material is fed into the mill at
a rate calculated to produce the correct product
size in one pass.



The feed rate must be low enough to ensure that
every particle spends enough time in the mill to be
reduced to required product size.
G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
closed circuit:
no effort is made to effect all the size reduction
in a single pass.




Material returned to the mill by the classifier is
known as the circulating load.
Grinding in the minerals industry is almost
always in closed circuit

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TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing
Advantages:
reduces residence time of particles in each
pass.
Decreases over grinding and therefore
increases energy available for useful grinding.

G.Dombo UNAM 2014
TMLE3692 Lectures 5 and 6:
Chapter 2; Mineral Processing