Continuous Improvement in SAG

Mill Liner Design Using New

Technologies
Edison Collinao*, Robinson Irarrazabal
Management Technical Services, ME Elecmetal, Santiago, Chile
Rodrigo M. de Carvalho, L. Marcelo Tavares
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering (COPPE), Universidade Federal do
Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Introduction
Liners and grinding media are directly responsible for
the comminution process that takes place inside SAG
mills. Since they are consumables, that is, they will
have to be replaced due to wear, there are excellent
opportunities throughout the life of a mill of
improving performance through proper selection of
steel mill liners and grinding media.
Introduction
The paper describes the approach that is used by ME
Elecmetal in continuous improvement of liner design
using some of the technologies listed above. It then
presents in detail a real case study of improving liner
design of a 38’ SAG mill grinding copper ore in Chile.
Continuous Improvement Tools

Continuous Improvement

 3D laser
scanning, ME
Elecmetal.
DEM Mill Analyst
from ANSYS® from
Solutions, a
LTM/Universi Ansys Inc., a  ME UP +
discrete finite
element
dade Federal Time, time
do Rio de elements
method optimization
Janeiro analysis
software software.
of relining
(UFRJ)
 SAG Mill Liner Improvement Approach
Methodology
Take operational campaign statistics,
dimensional background
Scan liner with laser for different
points during campaign.
Baseline Compare statistics of the operational efficiency
Characterization
Simulate using the EDEM the liner profile,
current design and worn profiles

Analyze using Mill Analyst

Design a new liner based on knowledge

acquired

Compare the results of the New Design with Proposal Liner Design
Current Design and worn profiles
Implementation and Evaluation of
Results
 Industrial Case Study
Improvement of Shell Liner Design in a
38’ SAG Mill
Baseline Characterization
SAG mill parameter Value SAG mill parameter Value
Internal diameter, mm 11,500 Speed, rpm 9.8
Internal length, mm 6,600 Mill filling, % 30
Mill installed power, kW 19,500 Grinding media filling, % 14
Mineral density, ton/m3 2,8 Grinding media size, in 5

Space between Lifters

(Aspect ratio d/h = 1,18)
60 Lifters
(High – High)

(20°) attack angle

Baseline Characterization
The dimensional configuration of the old shell liner design also had
other negative aspects, the photos show fracture zones.
Parameters to Simulate
Steel ball charge Ore charge
Size, % kg Size, % Retained kg
mm Retained mm Size Classes %
127 20 5700 152 2 202
DEM Coarse
114 30 6600 102 8 728 10
(+100mm)
101 22 300 76 9 825
89 17 30 63 7 597 DEM Medium
25
(+50mm-100mm)
76 12 35 51 9 746
DEM Medium-fine
38 10 886 28
(-50mm)
25 18 1553
Sub-DEM
37
19 37 3239 (+1mm-12,5mm)

Ball and ore size distribution to DEM Simulation

Improvement Proposal
Improvement of Shell Liner Design
Old Design New Design

(Aspect ratio d/h = 1,18) (Aspect ratio d/h = 3)

SAG mill parameter Old Design New Design

Internal diameter, mm 5700 5700
Internal length, mm 6600 6600
Number of Lifter 60 30
Number pieces of shell liners 210 120
Angle Attack, degrees (°) 20 35
 Simulation Results:
Industrial Case Study
Simulation Results : Industrial Case Study.

Charge trajectory of the old design (left) and the new design (center)
 Simulation Results : Industrial Case Study.

Charge trajectory of the old design (left) and the new design (center) and flying charge
and attrition zone in tumbling mill (right)
Apparent Breakage Rates
Mechanistic Model Structure

DEM
(collision
Population
spectrum)
balance
Bed
breakage
Fracture
models
Particle breakage energy
models (empirical/ convolution
phenomenological)

Microscale Mesoscale Macroscale

Tavares and Carvalho (2009) – “Mechanistic Modeling” – LTM-UFRJ

Simulation Results : Industrial Case Study.
Population Balance

Normal and Tangential Energy Spectrum of old and new liner design (useful pairs)
Simulation Results : Industrial Case Study.
Population Balance

Comparison of Energy per Pairs of Collisions of New Liner Design over

Old Liner Design
Simulation Results: Industrial Case Study.
Average number effective collisions

Average number effective collisions in the old and new liner design
Industrial Testing of The
New Design
Industrial Testing of The New Design
Industrial Testing of The New Design

Parameters Old Design New Design Difference %

Maximum Throughput, t/h 1,925 2,250 17

Average Throughput, t/h 1,883 2029 8

Minimum Throughput, t/h 1,773 1,881 6

Power Draw, Kw 13,130 16,487 up to 26

Power Draw usage, % 67 85 18

Specific energy consumption SAG Mill, kwh/t 7,41 7,32 -1,2

Total Charge, % 30 28 to 32 -6 to +6

Ball Charge, % 14 14 to 18 up to 28

Slot’s Open size, in 2,5 2,5 -

Grate’s Total Open, in2 814 814 -

Work index Ball Bond - BWI, kwh/t 17 to 18 17 to 18 -

Comparison of operating conditions

Conclusions
The results of simulations and analysis obtained by using ME Elecmetal’s technological
tools allowed to support the new design proposal applied to liners of the 38’ SAG mill.

The methodology allows to integrate all the information gathered by different

technologies mentioned above for implementing the right optimization proposal for
the end users.

The new configuration of liners resulted better charge liberation as it used 50% less
number lifters, thus more space between lifters.

Increasing lifters’ face angle from 20° a 35° allowed improving the particle
trajectory, transforming the milling movement from “waterfall” to “cascade” thus
achieving a better concentration of the charge and also eliminating the failures due to
broken liners.

The new design was implemented successfully achieving a higher throughput

between 6% and 17% when comparing to the old lifter design.
Thank you