Experiment 1: Bond Work Index

Pre-laboratory Questions

1. What is the importance of determining the work index?

2. What is the usual range of circulating loads in grinding circuits? Why?
3. Will the work index change during wet grinding and dry grinding? Why or
Why not?

Objective
The experiment aims to help familiarize the students with the procedure for
determining the work index of an ore. The study will also investigate the effect of
the final product size on work index value of an ore.

Equipment and Materials

Jaw Crusher
Roller Crusher
Laboratory Ball Mill
Sieves
Sieve Shaker
Ore

Procedure

Sample Preparation
1. Obtain at least 10kgs or ore and place in properly labeled pails.
2. Stage Crush the ore using the Jaw Crusher and the Roller Crusher
3. Produce at least 10kgs of -10mesh ore particles
4. Obtain a representative sample of the crushing product and perform particle
size analysis. Determine the 80% passing size.
5. Determine the bulk density of the ore by packing ore sample in a 1000ml
graduated plastic cylinder and weighing.
 6. Determine the IPP (Intended Product Passing or Ideal Potential Product) for
250% circulating load. Pack 700cc of ore material in graduated plastic
cylinder and obtain the its weight.

IPP(grams) = (Weight of 700cc ore)/3.5

Grinding
1. Prepare the steel balls that will be used as grinding media. The grinding media
should be composed of differently sized steel balls with the following
dimensions:
a. 43 1.45” balls
b. 67 1.17” balls
c. 10 1” balls
d. 71 0.75” balls
e. 94 0.61” balls
f. *The calculated surface area is 842 in2
2. “Clean” the ball mill by grinding a small amount of ore material for 5 minutes.
Throw out the material used in the “cleaning” step.
3. Place the ore and the grinding media in the mill and run for 100 revolutions.
4. Place the grinding product in a large steel pan. Separate the grinding media
from the ore material and ensure that all ore material is removed from the
grinding media before placing them back in the ball mill. Screen the ore
product using the sieve assigned to your group.
5. Replace the screen undersize with ore from the original bulk sample. Use
appropriate sampling techniques when taking material from the bulk sample.
6. Calculate the number of revolutions required for the next run.
(IPP−Weight undersize in feed)
Number of revolutions = 𝑁𝑒𝑡 𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡
( )
𝑅𝑒𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑

7. Repeat steps 3-6 using the new number of revolutions until the circulating
load equilibrates at 250% +/- 2%
8. Obtain the particle size analysis of the final product and find the 80% passing.
 Sample Calculations

Bulk Density : 1637.4 g/ml

Material Charge : 1146. 17 g
IPP = 327.48 g

Period New undersiz no. of Product product net Net %

Feed e of new mill revs oversize undersiz product product circulatin
Feed e undersiz undersiz g load
e e per
mill rev

1 1146.17 184.76 100 796.98 349.19 164.43 1.6443 228.2368

2 349.19 56.28942 164.9276

8 726
 Experiment 2 : Mesh of Grind Determination

Pre-laboratory Questions

1. How is liberation size related to MOG?

2. For what types of equipment is MOG utilized?

Objective
The experiment aims to help familiarize the students with the operation of a
laboratory scale ball mill. The techniques needed to obtain the mesh of grind would
also be studied. The relationship of final product size and/or the type of ore material
to the mesh of grind will also be investigated.

Equipment and Materials

Jaw Crusher
Roller Crusher
Laboratory Ball Mill
Sieves
Sieve Shaker
Ore
Pressure Filter

Procedure

Sample Preparation
1. Obtain a representative sample of the crushing product and perform particle
size analysis. Determine the 80% passing size.

Grinding

1. Prepare the steel balls that will be used as grinding media. The grinding media
should be composed of differently sized steel balls to be set by your instructor.
This will be kept constant throughout the experiment.
2. “Clean” the ball mill by grinding a small amount of ore material for 5 minutes.
Throw out the material used in the “cleaning” step.
3. Prepare 1kg samples of dry solid ore. Use proper sampling techniques in
obtaining material from the bulk. Perform PSA.
4. Place the grinding media in the ball mill. Add the dry ore.
5. Grind the sample for 5 minutes.
6. Collect the dry ore from the ball mill and make sure to remove all solids in
the grinding media and the inside of the mill.
7. Perform PSA using a representative sample of the ore ( this is approximately
¼ of the total ore charge).
8. Collect entire mill product and place in a sturdy sample bag.
9. Obtain another 1kg sample and place inside the ball mill with the grinding
media.
10.Repeat steps 5-8 but add an additional 5 mins to the grinding time until 80%
of the mill product reports as undersize. (100 mesh or 140 mesh )

Confirmatory Grinding

1. Construct an MOG plot using the % passing of the assigned sieve versus
the time interval used in grinding.
2. Compute for the time required to grind the ore at 80% passing size of the
assigned sieve.
3. Perform PSA and confirm the percent passing.
4. Grind all ore samples used with the obtained grinding time.