I-133

SAG

I-134
some empirical correlations, the transport limitations and limiting factors
that are coming to light in high throughput mills.

2006

DEFINITION OF TERMS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE

DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING

First, it is appropriate to clearly define some of the terminology that is

used in this field of application, and to clarify its usage and significance.

UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

Vancouver, B. C., Canada

SLURRY POOLING AND TRANSPORT ISSUES IN SAG MILLS

Malcolm Powell1 and Walter Valery2

Slurry pooling
The development of a pool along the length of a mill, arising from slurry
in excess of what can be held within the grinding charge.
The issues surrounding slurry pooling were highlighted by Morrell and
co-workers, and the consequences are elucidated in a number of
publications, Latchireddi and Morrell (1997), Morrell et al. (1996, 2000).

Head Comminution Group, Mineral Processing Research Unit,

University of Cape Town, Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa,
mpowell@chemeng.uct.ac.za.
2
General Manager, Metso Minerals Process Technology Australia &
Asia-Pacific, 24 Lavarack Ave, Eagle Farm, Brisbane, QLD 4009,
Australia. Walter.valery@metso.com

Shoulder
Cataracting material

Reduced attrition

ABSTRACT
Slurry pooling, excessive accumulation of slurry in the mill, and the
associated loss of throughput and grind, are well recognised on lowaspect, single-stage SAG mills. However, it is becoming apparent that a
wide range of the high-aspect mills also suffer from pooling issues. This
is associated with the high throughput of mills treating less competent
ores, excessive pebble porting, and large (>36ft) mills being closed with
cyclones. Data are presented from a number of mills operating in
different applications to support this contention. The issue raised is that
mill throughput is controlled by discharge capacity, and a better
understanding of this is required to enable higher mill throughputs.
INTRODUCTION
It is generally thought that only low aspect mills suffer from slurry
pooling, and even for those mills most operators are unaware the
existence of pooling in their mills. It is the contention of the authors that
milling equipment and mill liner suppliers have an inadequate knowledge
of the issues surrounding transport issues in general in mills, and are not
adequately responding to the case histories that are clearly indicating
that many mills are suffering from discharge issues. It is the aim of this
paper to highlight, through some well documented case studies and

Toe

Slurry pool

Poor impact

Figure 1 Slurry pooling

Figure 1 illustrates the notion of slurry pooling. In this end view of a
laboratory mill, the shaded area shows the zone occupied by slurry.
This has overrun the charge volume and formed a slurry pool in the toe
region. This is the impacting region, so results in impact grinding being
considerably reduced through the falling cataracting material splashing
into a pool instead of crashing onto the solid toe region of the charge. In
the bulk region of the charge that is ascending to the shoulder there is
considerable attrition through shearing of layers. This action is

I-135
responsible for the production of fine material. The pooling causes a
dilution of the slurry leading to a lowered viscosity, and the well know
associated drop in milling efficiency. Additionally, the pool running the
length of the mill washes suspended particles, (particles up to 500m are
easily suspended in a flowing slurry) straight out through the mill. The
pool resides on the opposite side to the bulk of the charge and
consequently produces a counter-torque that results in a reduction of mill
power.
Techniques of detecting slurry pooling are presented in Powell et al.
(2001). In essence the slurry level should be just below the charge level
after a crash stop. The sum effect of these pooling effects is reduced
throughput, coarsening of grind, and a drop in power.
Crash stop
The mill feed, all mill inlet water, and the mill are stopped simultaneously.
This is often referred to in surveying procedures and in the literature, but
the authors have found that few operators actually appreciate the
meaning of a true crash stop. What is not appreciated is the term
simultaneously, often this is loosely interpreted to mean around about
the same time, preferably within a minute or so. The issue is that once
the feed is stopped a mill can pump out a significant portion of the
resident slurry in only a few rotations.
Generally crash stopping entails tripping the mill, closing off inlet water,
and stopping the pumps to cyclones closed with the mill. A check should
be made that belt wash water is on the auto-valve, or it should be
switched off manually at the time of the stop. The auto switching off of
the water valves should be checked beforehand, to ensure that they do
switch off properly and to allow for shut-off time. It is sometimes
necessary to activate the valves first, and stop the mill as they are almost
closed. As the cyclone underflow has to be stopped, the sump pumps
have to be stopped, a particularly unpopular move with operators.
However, knocking open the pump drain valve as it stops allows the
slurry to drain to spillage, and prevent blockages from occurring. Feed to
screens can be maintained, as only a small mass of screen oversize
reports to the inlet of the mill, and can be ignored in mill filling
measurements.
A crash stop is conducted to measure mill filling and slurry level, and the
mill internal dimensions. The mill filling should be measured in at least 3
points along the mill, preferably by the vertical height to the roof of the
mill (a laser range meter is ideal for this). The slurry level need only be
measured at one point, as the slurry is horizontal.

I-136
Aspect ratio
Aspect ratio is the ratio of mill diameter to mill length.
High aspect mills are classic of the Americas, where often the diameter
is twice the length, giving an aspect ration of 2. These are ideal for high
throughputs and a coarse product to feed to a secondary ball mill for
further size reduction. Medium aspect mills are common in Australia,
with aspect ratios between 1.2 and 1.5.
Low aspect mills are common in South Africa and Scandinavia, The
length can be up to twice the diameter, to give an aspect ratio of 0.5.
These mills ensure a long residence time, which yields a finer grind
size. They are often operated as single stage mills that produce the final
product. To achieve this they are closed with a classifier, usually a fine
1mm screen, or cyclones. When in closed circuit the mill often has to
handle a significantly higher slurry discharge rate. Specific issues
relating to operation of low aspect mills and the slurry pooling issues are
available in Powell et al. (2001) and Mainza et al. (2006).
Discharge grate
The discharge grate is designed to retain oversize material and balls in
the mill, and allow product to discharge. Often pebble ports are used to
allow the discharge of larger rocks, but they also allow intermediate size
material to discharge.
The open area of new grates can be calculated from drawings. It is not
uncommon for the quoted open area figures to be markedly different to
the final grate design, so beware of the figures quoted by liner suppliers.
For worn grates a sample of slot widths should be taken to check the
worn width. Two mm of wear on each edge for 15 and 20mm slot
widths, results in a 25% to 20% increase in open area.
The relative radial position is a number used to assess how close to the
periphery of the mill the open area is positioned, equation 1. In effect it
is the average radial position of the open area divided by the mill radius.
This can be calculated for one panel, or any subset of panels that are
representative of the whole grate.

[slot area x r ]
slot

Rel. Radial Posn. =

all slots

total open area

Rmill = mill radius to liner plate

Rslot = radial dist to centre of each slot

1
Rmill

Equation 1

Pulp lifter
The pulp lifters act as a pump to lift the pulp up from the pool to overflow
through the discharge trunnion They are radial vanes between the grate
and the end of the mill extending out from the discharge cone to the
periphery of the mill. Most pulp lifters are straight radial arms. A more
efficient form of pulp lifter is a spiral or curved.
To measure the depth of the lifters it is easy to insert a tape measure
through a slot and push it against the rear wall. Measure the total depth
to the rear wall, then measure the grate thickness and get the pulp lifter
depth by difference. This should be done in a couple of radial positions to
check that the chamber has a constant width.
The number of pulp lifters must be counted and noted whether they
extend the full radial length or, as is often the case, every second row is
only half length. This layout is to prevent flow constriction at the centre of
the discharge, caused by the convergence of the thick pulp lifter bars.
SLURRY POOLING ISSUE
A number of regions in the mill contribute to the hold-up and discharge of
the slurry. This is presented in some detail by Condori and Powell
(2006). A description of the key practical aspects is given here.
Mill charge
Strangely this aspect of the slurry hold up is generally overlooked. The
physical composition of the charge has a significant influence on the
resistance to flow that the charge contents present. There is a huge
difference in flow resistance of the slurry from AG milling to ball milling,
and from a coarse to a fine mill charge. Thus in shifting from open circuit
to closed with a fine screen, the slurry hold-up in a mill increases
considerably, even though there is typically less than 10% recirculating
load when closing with a screen. The driving force here is the finer mill
charge driven by the longer residence time and recycle of sandy (110mm) material.
This effect can also be observed when the feed to a mill changes in size
distribution. This can lead to susceptible mills drifting in and out of slurry
pooling. This effect was observed at the Los Bronces site in Chile, on a
34ft mill, Powell et al. (2006). During a mill circuit survey the power to the
no 2 SAG mill was found to have dropped by 1.5MW, despite load
creeping up and ederate increasing at the onset of the power drop, and

then being maintained, Figure 2. Upon inspection of the mill after a

crash stop it was found to be dramatically slurry pooling.
9000

450

SAG 2 Power
Loadx100

8500

400

SAG 2 pebble discharge

feedrate/10

350

8000
300
7500
250
7000
200
6500

6000
10:04:48

pebble discharge, tph

Morrell and Stephenson (1996) found this factor to impose a strong

influence on pulp discharge capacity, so it is important to include it in any
grate assessment.

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power, kW

I-137

150

10:19:12

10:33:36

10:48:00

11:02:24

100
11:16:48

time

Figure 2 Los Bronces onset of pooling

On 6m diameter single stage AG mill closed with a 1mm screen, it was
found that the mill was usually in a slurry pooling condition. However,
when a coarser feed was received the mill would suddenly experience a
surge in power, increasing power draw by about 400kW in less than 2
minutes, despite feedrate being held constant and mill load not
changing. This could be reproduced by switching the coarse feeders on
and off, and correlated directly to slurry pooling.
Grate
The grate can discharge a massive flowrate, well in excess of that
required by the mill. In fact an open ended mill, which means that there
is only the grate retaining the mill charge and the slurry can pour out the
end of the mill, discharges at an excessive rate. This was found by
Mokken et al. (1975) who tackled the slurry pooling issues in South
African Gold mine mills, by converting to open ended mills. They found
that they had to block off a considerable portion of the grate open area
to retain adequate slurry in the mill for efficient grinding. This clearly
indicates that the constraint to slurry discharge does not lie with the
grates.
Pulp lifters
The work of Mokken et al. (1975) forms an early record of the
inefficiency of the pulp lifters, for it was through their removal that the
slurry discharge rate increased beyond the required limit in closed

I-139
circuit production mills with a recirculating load in excess of 200%. This
was investigated in some detail on the pilot scale by Latchireddi and
Morrell (2003), who demonstrated that with a grate only discharge, the
maximum discharge rate was more than double that for a standard radial
pulp lifter arrangement for the same slurry hold-up in the mill.
What these studies highlighted is the inefficiency of the pulp lifter system.
When one considers that the pulp lifters are effectively a centrifugal
pump running in the reverse direction to that required by a pump, one
can begin to appreciate the issue. A pump draws liquid in at the centre
and flings it to the periphery, whereas the pulp lifters move slurry from
the periphery to the centre.
The slurry flows through the grate and into the pulp chamber. The
studies of Latchireddi and Morrell (2003) demonstrated that the majority
of discharge takes place at the base of the charge. From there it is lifted
up but at the same time accelerated outwards by the rotary motion of the
pulp lifters. This is key, as it results in a net lowered radial acceleration
towards the discharge end of the pulp lifter. This increases the residence
time on the lifter, the slurry flows far slower down the lifter than if it was
poured onto a static sloping channel.
Net acceleration = Acc = g sin() r
For:
= instantaneous angle of the lifter from the horizontal
g = gravitational acceleration
= angular velocity, in radians/s
r = radius along the pulp lifter
Thus as the mill rotates faster, although the swept area of the pulp lifters
increases, which will increase pumping capacity, the flowrate off them
decreases. The net effect is that the pumping capacity of the pulp lifters
passes through a peak as mill speed is increased, and then decreases.
This peak appears to be at over 85% of critical speed, so does not seem
important to most mills. However, the pumping capacity is strongly
levelling off from about 80% of critical speed, so will compromise the
discharge capacity of higher speed mills.
2

Flowback
What Latchireddi and Morrell (2003) did clearly identify is that a
significant portion of the slurry does not reach the end of the pulp lifter in
each revolution of the mill. Once the pulp lifter has passed the profile of
the charge the very grate holes through which the pulp flowed out of the
mill are now available for the slurry to flow-back through into the mill as it
flows rather slowly down the pulp lifter.
This effect is exacerbated by:
large holes minimal flow resistance,

I-140

holes positioned flush with the leading face of the pulp lifter the
full depth of slurry flowing down the channel, it is exposed to the
holes,
holes positioned towards the centre line of the mill the slurry has
more contact time with these and is deeper towards the centre of
the discharge.
Additionally, the holes towards the centre line of the mill are not
exposed to charge on the inside of the mill, so have zero contribution to
discharge capacity, they only contribute to flowback.
Ultimate limit
There is no realistically achievable limit to the slurry discharge capacity.
It has been noted that there appears to be a step increase in discharge
capacity as the mill enters slurry pooling. This may correlate to the low
flow resistance within the pool, that flows like a river above the toe of
the charge. There is then a dramatic increase in discharge capacity as
the level reaches the discharge trunnion and the mill switches to
overflow discharge. From this point on the discharge rate is not
controlled or limited by the pulp lifter arrangement, the slurry simply
bypasses that. This has been observed on some single stage fine
grinding applications where the mill is operating with a high charge
filling.
The symptom of this is that after crash stopping the mill, the slurry
continues to flow out of the discharge trunnion. This is absolute
concrete evidence that it is dramatically slurry pooling and is operating
as an overflow mill. One such instance was reported by Powell et al.
(2001), for a mill treating UG2 platinum ore and operating with a charge
filling of over 40%.
What should be noted from this discussion is that being told that a mill is
managing to discharge the full slurry requirements, does not imply that it
is operating without a slurry pool.
PEBBLE DISCHARGE
A throughput limiting factor in the large open circuit SAG mills is the rate
at which pebbles can be discharged. Massive increases in feedrate can
be achieved by discharging pebbles at as high a rate as possible, and
rates exceeding 50% of the RoM feedrate can be achieved. To obtain
these rates the discharge grate slots are enlarged to all be pebble ports.
Generally the total open area does not exceed 10%.
It is proposed that the resulting massive slots in the grates allow
maximum flowback of the slurry and thus compromise slurry discharge

I-141
capacity, which then becomes the new rate limiting factor to the mill
operation. Additionally, Installing ports increases the discharge
requirements of the mill, as not only the extra pebbles are discharged,
but also intermediate size material, that falls between the rammel
aperture and the desired pebble size about 15 to 30mm, is discharged
and has to be recycled to the mill.

I-142
slurry sprays out under pressure, indicating that the trunnion discharge
is not coping with the slurry flowrate and it is producing slurry carry-over
in the pulp lifter chamber. From these observations it was immediately
concluded that the mill will slurry pool. Sure enough, upon entering the
mill after a crash stop, a massive slurry pool was found in the mill.

SOME SITE EXAMPLES

Los Bronces
The outcomes of survey work conducted at the Los Bronces mine of
AngloChile have been reported, Condori et al. (2006). In this work a
marked difference was noted between the slurry discharge of the two
SAG mills, as illustrated in Figure 3.
SAG 1

SAG 2

Unutilised
space
Figure 4 Los Bronces SAG mill 2 discharge grate
As illustrated in Figure 4, the mill has classic massive pebble porting,
typical of the operations aiming for maximum pebble discharge rate.
The open area is successful at achieving this, but at an associated cost
that is generally not appreciated. The mill has 14% open area, and
undoubtedly a massive slurry flowback problem.
In order to evaluate this issue, the superficial discharge flow velocity
(SDV) was calculated. This is the volumetric flowrate per cross-section
discharge open area, in m3/h per m2, giving units of m/h. As can be
seen in Table 1, the value for SAG mill 1 is 25% higher than for SAG
mill 2. The lower SDV in SAG 2 is due to its larger open area, 14%
versus 10% for SAG 1. Interestingly dropping the open area to the
same as that of SAG mill 1, results in the same calculated SDV as SAG
mill 1.

Figure 3 Mill discharge and load for the Los Bronces mills
The 28ft SAG mill 1 has good discharge, with the slurry flowing out in the
circled area on the photograph, and the charge being dry on the surface.
Upon removing the hood that covers the discharge, the 34ft number 2
SAG mill was noted to have a violent splashing discharge. The slurry
only begins to discharge after the vertical, to the left of the dotted line.
This is observed on many mills, and graphically demonstrates how the
centrifugal force slows down the flowrate of the slurry, to such an extent
that it only reaches the centre as the pulp lifter reaches the vertical. The

The SAG 1 mill was used as base case in order to fit parameters of the
slurry hold-up model (Latchireddi and Morrell, 2003), after that the
model was applied to the SAG 2 mill under the current operating
conditions. From the simulation it was calculated that a deeper 550mm
pulp lifter is required, as opposed to the current depth of 465 mm. By
reducing the open area, increasing the pulp lifter depth and increasing
the trunnion discharge area, the slurry discharge restriction in the SAG
2 mill should be reduced and the mill throughput can be increased. This
is backed by the simulations in which the SAG 1 model was used for
SAG 2, and a 10% increase in throughput was achieved. This indicates
that this is a crucial area of circuit optimisation that is well worthwhile
pursuing.

I-143
Clearly the impact of this on the pebble discharge rate has to be
assessed. The procedure would be to remove slots from the inner radial
edge of the grates to achieve the required open area. As can be seen in
the detail on the right of Figure 4, there is space at the periphery of the
grate. Placing a long slot in this area will replace the open area of two of
the inner slots, and no flowback will result from this outermost slot. To
achieve this, the filler ring behind the shell liner has to be reduced and
the grate lengthened to slide a bit behind the lifter bar, so that the outer
structure of the grate can be maintained. Chamfering of the end of the
lifter bar on the end shell liner will allow the grate to be removed without
removing liners.
Open vs. closed circuit
In a set of work conducted at Morila Gold mine, an AngloGold
Ashanti/Randgold Resources joint venture in Mali, the SAG mill was
operated in closed and open circuit configurations during a period of low
throughput requirements. The data is presented in Table 1, courtesy of
Aubrey Mainza, of the MPRU of University of Cape Town. The open
circuit has double the ederate of the closed circuit configuration, but
almost the same slurry discharge rate, due to the cyclone recycle
stream, giving almost the same SDV. This seems to indicate that the
absolute flowrate limit of the mill may be controlling the mill throughput.

Figure 5 Sticky, almost pooling charge in a closed-circuit high

aspect mill
A further illustration of the effect of closing a circuit on the discharge
capacity is provided by Figure 5. This is for a high aspect mill operating
in closed circuit with a 1mm screen, and a recirculating load of less than
10%. As explained earlier, the effect of closing the circuit is to develop a
considerably finer charge, and this results in an increased hold-up of the
slurry in the charge. Thus it is the charge that becomes the rate
controlling factor in the maximum possible slurry discharge rate. Clearly,
converting a mill to a closed circuit operation immediately makes it

I-144
susceptible to slurry pooling issues, and this is not just a function of the
extra flowrate from the recycle stream. The warning is that in closing a
circuit, careful consideration must be taken of the mill discharge
capacity, as it may be inadequate and consequently limit the grinding
potential of the mill.
Influence of ball charge
It is not well appreciated how much of an influence the fractional ball
filling in a SAG mill has on the discharge capacity. The extremes are
given by AG milling and operating in RoM ball mill mode, where the
fraction of balls can exceed 0.8 of the total charge. The effect on slurry
hold-up is illustrated in Figure 6. The mill in the left images was
converted from AG milling to RoM ball milling, and the effect on the
slurry hold-up is dramatic, with the pooling and stickiness apparent in
the AG mode being replaced by a dry charge surface. This is despite
the mill receiving considerably more feed in the RoM ball mill mode. The
right images are two different mills, with the lower AG mill showing
considerable pooling.

Figure 6 UG2 mills operating as a primary RoM ball mill (top) and
AG mill (bottom). The left images are from the same mill.

I-145
Discharge grate modification
In many instances the discharge grate is progressively modified in order
to steadily increase the pebble discharge rate, to meet ever-increasing
production demands. From data collected during these exercises the
relationship shown in Figure 7 was developed. This shows the relative
pebble production at different % pebble port open area and ball charges.
120

% scats recirculation

0%

AG/SAG, Hard

100

AG, Moderate Soft

80
6%

60

4%

8%

40
8%
20
8%
0
0

20

40

60

80

I-146
36ft AG mill treating a hard ore
The 36ft AG mill discharge grate design in a hard ore plant, has been
modified during the commissioning in order to reduce the pebble
discharge to design level. The first discharge grate consisted of equal
number of panels with 40mm and 70mm pebble ports. During the first
days of commissioning, the mill was operated in fully autogenous mode
without pebble crushing and pebble recirculation was in excess of
100%. A dramatic reduction in pebble production and increase in feed
rate occurred with addition of 4% balls (Figure 7). The ball charge was
then increased to 8% and the pebble production dropped below 50% of
feed rate. The pebble production (t/h) was above the capacity of the
discharge screen and pebble return conveyor and therefore, grates with
pebble ports were gradually replaced by grates with 20mm slots until
design values for pebble production and mill feed rate were achieved.
The final design had 6 panels with 40mm ports, 6 panels with 70mm
ports and 24 panels with 20mm slots. The total open area has
decreased from 9.8% with all pebble ports to 7.4%. Plant operating
experience and inspections of mill internals suggest that slurry pooling
is not an issue. This mill has the highest SDV of the current database,
suggesting an efficient discharge design.

100

% pebble ports open area

Figure 7 Relationship between pebble scats recirculation and open

area, for different ball charges
28ft AG mill treating a soft ore
The AG mill discharge grate design in a moderately soft Pb/Zn/Ag ore
plant, has been modified throughout the life of the circuit in order to
increase throughput. Initially, a grate with 17mm slots was used and at
one stage a grate with all 65mm ports was tested. It can be observed
from Figure 7 that the pebble production increased from 20% for the
grate without pebble ports to over 100% for the grate with all pebble
ports. Although the grate open area was also increased from 5.6% with
no pebble ports to 7.6% with all pebble ports, the fraction of pebble ports
area dictates the amount of pebbles from the mill. An optimal grate
design with pebble ports at 65% of the open area was found to allow
high mill throughput (over 400tph) and to limit pebble production to the
pebble conveyor capacity.
As shown in Table 1, this mill operates at high rock load, around 40%, at
high slurry filling but rarely experience slurry pooling. This is due to
relatively moderate slurry recirculation around 150 250% sufficient
discharge grate open area and pulp lifter capacity.

CAPACITY RELATIONSHIPS
A summary of a selection of mills, with detailed information on operating
conditions and mill charge filling, is presented in Table 1. The analysis
presented below is in no way meant to be a modelling exercise, but
rather a demonstration of some of the key drivers in discharge capacity.
However, the extension of this high quality data base will be used to test
existing relationships and develop new ones in the near future.
Two key areas are assessed from the data; slurry and pebble discharge
capacity. Both are expressed as the superficial discharge velocity
(SDV), which is the volumetric flowrate per unit open area. For
convenience the units used are based on the figures familiar to mill
operators, of flowrate in m3/h and grate open area in m2, yielding an
SDV value in m/h. The usefulness of the SDV is that for a possible open
area and engineering design parameters, the likely maximum flowrate
out of the mill can be calculated.
Trend lines are used to give a first view of the likely key parameters,
and simple linear regression analysis is used to weed out the nondependent variables and highlight the important factors that influence
the discharge rate.

I-147
Slurry discharge capacity
Figure 8 shows some trends for the slurry SDV. There is a surprisingly
poor correlation with pulp lifter length, as an absolute number or as a
percentage of the mill length. There is a trend with the superficial
discharge velocity off the lip of the pulp lifter, but the data is scattered.
There is a good correlation with the fitted JKSAG mill discharge
coefficient, which is encouraging. It is also noted that a couple of the
sites lie well outside the main band of trends.
Slurry discharge
12000

700

Los Bronces 2 pooling

500

pulp lifter, mm

8000

pulp lifter, %mill Lx50

400

6000
300
4000

200

2000

100

Amandel AG

0
50

70

90

110

130

150

170

190

superficial velocity, m/h

Figure 8 Correlations with superficial discharge velocity

Te st of sl u rry su pe rfi cial disch arge rate fit

Sv = 164 - 59.5*frac balls+714 pulpL/mill vol-267*rel radial posn

190
170
150
predicted

Discharge coefficient

sup vel pulp lift, m/h

min pulp disch vel, m/h; pulp lifter,

mm

600

JKSAG disch coeff

10000

130
110
90
predicted super vel

Adjust ed R2 = 0.842
Std Error = 12.6

70

out liers

50
50

70

90

110

130

150

170

190

e xpe ri m e n tal

Figure 9 Correlation of simple fit to discharge data

I-148
When conducting a linear regression, the Pulp lifter was converted to
length per mill volume, as the milling capacity of a mill is directly related
to its volume. The parameter of the fraction of balls in the charge was
investigated, as highlighter earlier in this paper. The relative radial
position of the grate open area was also assessed. A number of other
parameters were assessed, and found to have little or no correlation
with the SDV. Surprisingly the slurry level in the mill, and mill filling had
no correlation. The relationship that was derived is presented in
equation 2, and the correlation of predicted and measured data
presented in Figure 9. The fraction of balls came out as a strong
correlation, and it is interesting to note that this factor is not used in any
current slurry discharge models.
SDV = 164 - 59.5*frac balls + 714 pulpL/mill vol - 267*rel radial posn
Equation 2
The reason for the two outliers (which were excluded from the analysis)
is not clear, but both have unexpectedly high SDVs.
Equation 2 has great potential for quick engineering calculations, as for
a given pulp discharge requirement, and possible open area (usually 7
9% of the mill end area), and fraction of balls, a likely pulp lifter depth
requirement can be calculated.
Pebble discharge capacity
The trends shown in Figure 10, show scattered trending with open area,
but this figure suffers from being interdependent as the SDV includes
the open area. There is no correlation with pebble port size, but a strong
relationship to the recirculating load of pebbles. The two outlier sets are
for mills for which the majority of pebbles are recycled with little or no
crushing, hence they build up an unusually high pebble recycle load.
In the linear regression the obvious factors to try were found to show no
correlation to the SDV. Only the % of recirculating pebbles and the F80
were found to have any correlation with the pebble SDV. The
relationship is given by equation 3.
SDV pebble (m/h) = 560 2.8*F80 (mm) + 27* % recirc. Pebbles
Equation 3
The goodness of fit is rather good and is shown in Figure 11. The F80 is
an indicator of the fraction of coarse material in the feed that can form
pebbles. It would be preferable to use the number of rocks in and above
the pebble size class, but rather more detailed feed size information is
required. It is intended to test this more rigorously. The correlation with
the recirculation of pebbles was extremely strong, and using this
accommodated all the data, even the outliers that were noted in the
trending exercise of Figure 10 (page after next).

I-149

I-150
Equation 3 can be used to calculate the required grate open area for a
design pebble discharge rate, for a given feed size and an expected
recycle rate.

Recirc superficial
discharge product
load, % disch rate

UG2, AG

Lead/Zinc/Silver
28ft AG mill

Gold ore, SAG

36ft mill

Morila CC

Morila OC

Navachab

Navachab

Los Bronces 2

site
Diam shell, ft
28
34
16
16
26
26
36
28
20
Length, shell, ft
14
17
32
32
20
20
18
15
24
Diam inside, m
8.26 10.12
4.72
4.72 7.80
7.80 10.81
8.37
5.92
Length inside, m
4.189 4.722
9.49
9.49 5.47
5.47
4.95
4.03
7.1
Aspect ratio
2.0
2.1
0.5
0.5
1.4
1.4
2.2
2.1
0.8
0
0
cone angle, O
12
12
0
0
15
17
22.5
rpm
11
10
17.3
17.3 11.35 11.35
8.8
11
13.2
% crit.
76.9
74.4
88.9
88.9
74.9
74.9
68.4
75.2
75.9
total, %
23.7
17.5
40.6
40.0
33.7
44.0
27.0
41.0
27.9
balls, %
12.7
13.9
9.7
7.76
6.7
6.7
8
0
0
balls frac charge
0.54
0.79
0.24
0.19
0.20
0.15
0.30
0.00
0.00
slurry, %
21.0
23.4
39.1
42.1
33.2
40.0
21.0
19.0
30.0
slurry fraction
0.89
1.33
0.96
1.05
0.99
0.91
0.78
0.46
1.08
Power, kW
3917 7855 3034 2899 4876 3242 9500 4900 2580
grate width
53
70
18
18
33
33
20
17
20
pebble width
60
78
76
76
77
77
70
65
20
open area, m2
5.44 11.17
2.45
2.45
5.20
5.20
6.90
3.80
1.45
open area, %
10.17
13.9
14.0
14.0
10.9
10.9
7.5
6.9
5.3
outer slot to liner, mm
250
219
240
240
243
243
350
290
170
frac pebble ports
1.00
1.00
0.54
0.54
0.77
0.77
1.00
1.00
0.30
rel radial posn
0.802 0.847
0.71
0.71 0.800 0.800
0.79
0.81 0.640
trunnion diam, m
2.000 2.200 1.195 1.195 2.170 2.170
2.2
2 1.450
trommel aper, mm
13
18
18
18
21
21
8
10
12
JKSAG disch coeff
10000 6500 3000 3000 2000 2000 9800 7460 3500
depth
0.375 0.464 0.300 0.300 0.270 0.270 0.430 0.300 0.200
number
30
32
8
8
13
13
18
14
20
shape
radial radial curved curved radial radial radial radial radial
% mill L
9.0
9.8
3.2
3.2
4.9
4.9
8.7
7.4
2.8
RoM tph
919 1505
137
153
411
188
550
410
377
F80, mm
57
57 142.0 142.0
115
145
105
120
65
% -1mm
1.18
1.18
5.7
5.7
10
12
7.0
11
41
A*b
38.0
38.0
84.1
81.1
37.9
37.9
35.0
88 145.0
ta
0.62
0.62
0.51
0.48
0.39
0.39
0.24
0.34
1.25
density
2.59
2.59
2.84
2.84
2.75
2.75
2.80
3.40
3.40
solids, tph
919 1505
425 406.0
482
640 1781 1190
401
% solids
65.4
67
73.1
77.1
66
79
72.3
82.6
79.6
water m3/h
486
741
156
121
248
170
682
250
103
total flow, m3/h
841 1322
306
264
424
403 1318
600
221
pebbles, tph
81
335
25.6
33.2
71.2
49
150
205
6.6
slurry %solid (no peb)
63.3
61.2
71.9
75.6
62.3
77.6
70.5
79.8
79.3
% -Xm (approx 1mm)
60.6
58.7 86.46 83.94
60.0
87.6
80
59
92.8
total m/hr
154
118
125
107
81
77
191
158
152
solids, m/hr
65
52
61
58
34
45
92
92
81
pebble m/hr
574 1158
682
885
647
445
776 1587
446
sup vel pulp lift, m/h
524
549
330
285
279
266
523
391
537
total
0
0
211
166
17
240
224
190
6.4
slurry
0
0
192
144
0
214
205
140
4.6
pebbles
8.8
22.3
18.7
21.8
17.3
26.1
27.0
50.0
1.8

pebble discharge
80
14.00
70
12.00

60

10.00

50

8.00

40

6.00

30

4.00

20

Only partial pebble recrush

2.00

10

0.00
400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

0
1800

superfical pebble flow rate

open area, m2

open area, %

pebble width

% recirc pebbles

Figure 10 Correlations with pebble SDV

Test of pebble superficial discharge rate fit

predicted

feed

pulp lifter

Discharge

filling

spe
ed

Los Bronces 1

Table 1 Site data used in the analysis

1800
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200
0

SV pebble = 560-2.8*F80+27*% recirc pebbles

Adjusted R 2 = 0.85
Std Error = 140

200

400

600

800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800

experimental

Figure 11 Correlation of simple fit to pebble SDV

I-151

I-152

CONCLUSIONS

REFERENCES

In closing a SAG mill circuit, careful consideration must be taken of the

mill discharge capacity, as it may be inadequate and consequently limit
the grinding potential of the mill. The examples presented here show that
mills can successfully operate with up to 250% circulating load, so long
as adequate pulp discharge capacity is available and the grate is
appropriately designed. It is generally reported that the recirculating load
should be kept below 300% otherwise the mill goes off the grind, and the
recirculating load then shoots up, coinciding with slurry pooling. The finer
the mill product, the finer the mill charge and the more susceptible the
mill is to pooling due to the charge flow resistance increasing. Higher ball
loads decrease the slurry hold-up function of the mill and allow a higher
slurry discharge rate.

Condori, P. and Powell, M.S. (2006). A Mechanistic model of SAG mill

slurry discharge. Proceedings International autogenous and
semiautogenous grinding technology 2006, Sep. 24-27, Ed. Mular et
al, Published CIM.
Latchireddi, S. R. and Morrell, S., 1997. A laboratory study of the
performance characteristics of mill pulp lifters. Minerals Engineering,
Vol. 10, no. 11, pp. 1233-1244.
Latchireddi, S.R. and Morrell, S., 2003, Slurry flow in mills: grate-pulp
lifter discharge systems (Part 2). Mineral Engineering, 16, pp. 635642.
Morrell, S., Stephenson, I., 1996, Slurry discharge capacity of
autogenous and semi-autogenous mills and the effect of grate design,
International Journal of Mineral Processing, Vol. 46, pp 53 - 72.
Mokken, A., Blendulf, G., Young, G., 1975, A study of the
arrangements for pulp discharge on pebble mills and their influence on
mill performance, J. S.A. Inst. Min. Metal., May., pp. 257-280.
Morrell, S. and Kojovic, T., 1996. The influence of slurry transport on
the power draw of autogenous and semi-autogenous mills.
Proceedings of International conference on Autogenous and
Semiautogenous grinding Technology, Vancouver, Canada, pp. 373389.
Morrell, S. and Latchireddi, S., 2000. The Operation and Interaction of
Grates and Pulp Lifters in Autogenous and Semi-Autogenous Mills. In
Proceedings of Seventh Mill Operators Conference. AusIMM,
Kalgoorlie, Australia,pp 13-20.
Powell, M.S., Morrell, S. and Latchireddi, S., 2001. Developments in
the understanding of South African style SAG mills.
Minerals
Engineering. Vol. 14 No. 10, pp. 1143-1153.
Powell, M.S, Condori, P, Smit, I, and Valery, W. (2006). The value of
rigorous surveys the Los Bronces experience. Proceedings
International
autogenous
and
semiautogenous
grinding
technology 2006, Sep. 24-27, Ed. Mular et al, Published CIM.
Mainza, A.N., Powell, M.S., and Morrison, R.D. (2006). A review of SAG
circuits closed with hydrocyclones. Proceedings International
autogenous and semiautogenous grinding technology 2006, Sep.
24-27, Ed. Mular et al, Published CIM.

Pebble porting a mill dramatically increases its discharge requirements,

and it has been shown that a large porting open area has an adverse
effect on slurry discharge efficiency. It is therefore strongly
recommended that the mill discharge capacity is assessed, and possibly
improved through careful grate design, and possibly even modification of
the discharge chamber, before an entire circuit expansion is
implemented that can be doomed to never achieving the expected
outcomes.
The slurry superficial discharge flow velocities obtained from the data set
indicate a normal range of 100 to 150m/h, but that figures of up to 200
are attainable. The pebble SDV is in the range 500 to 1200 m/h, but
again a very high value of 1600m/h was obtained. In design these
guideline limits should not be exceeded. The SDV relationships given by
equations 2 and 3, allow a better indicator of the likely discharge capacity
for given milling conditions and discharge key design parameters, and
should be useful in checking supplier equipment recommendations.
It is proposed to continue this work to develop more robust relationships
that can link into the existing published modelling relationships.
ACKNOWLEDEGEMENTS
To the hard work of our co-workers, including Aubrey Mainza, Andr van
der Westhuizen and Percy Condori, and of Ian Smit, of AngloGold
Ashanti who was involved in a number of the surveys that contributed to
this excellent data base. We would also like to thank the numerous
mines who have supported the research work and allowed us to stop
mills. Some of the data was collected as part of AMIRA P9 projects, and
this research has been supported by the South African government Thrip
funding.