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Minerals Engineering: M.S. Powell, A.P. Van Der Westhuizen, A.N. Mainza
Minerals Engineering: M.S. Powell, A.P. Van Der Westhuizen, A.N. Mainza
Minerals Engineering
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mineng
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The operation of AG/SAG mills is sensitive to mill filling, therefore developing grindcurves to relate mill
Received 2 October 2008 filling to performance indicators such as throughput, power draw, and product size can assist in achieving
Accepted 9 January 2009 optimal mill operations. The throughput, power draw, and product size have been shown to peak at dif-
Available online 28 February 2009
ferent mill filling levels. Establishing grindcurves can assist operators to decide on the best set point for
operating their mill. Factors such as mill speed, mill inlet water, feed size distribution, and ore hardness
Keywords: all have an influence on the grindcurve, and form an integral part of the optimisation process.
Comminution
Test work has been conducted at a number of sites to develop grindcurves for different mills treating a
Grinding
SAG milling
range of ores. The results show great promise for use in optimising the operating set points for use in mill
Process control control. The methodology for developing grindcurves is described and the results from the case studies
performed on fixed and variable speed mills are discussed.
Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. The issues For a fixed mill filling and mill speed, the product size will
change for a target feed rate as the feed type fluctuates. For an
Due to their capacity and favourable capital and operating costs, operator or an expert control system, the question then becomes:
SAG mills are a favoured grinding device for most new milling ‘‘What are the control conditions to target for optimal mill opera-
plants. However, these single-stream devices do have a major tion?”. It is most desirable to supply the control system or operator
drawback: for all operations the ore type and its size distribution with a new target set of operating conditions to aim for. These can
always vary, both in the short term and long term, and the mill be based on downstream requirements, such as a consistent prod-
operation varies with the ore. The consequences of this are ex- uct size, with an average target feed rate.
pressed in a simple logic flow as: The key here is that variable operation leads to lower recovery.
Variable ore ? variable operation ? variable grind ? variable Control systems can generally succeed in stabilising mill through-
recovery ? lower recovery. put, but at what cost to recovery? This stabilisation versus optimal
It is therefore an intrinsic drawback of a relatively inflexible recovery problem should provide the motivation to study how
process, that recovery will be sacrificed. Thus it is desirable to ap- operational conditions affect the mill response, so that a target
ply process control to minimise the variation. operating regime can be selected.
Grinding is driven by the mill load – as defined by the density,
volume, and size distribution. A change in feed type changes the 2. Previous work
mill contents, which in turn changes the grinding rates, which
changes the mill contents, etc. with the mill responding in a non- A number of researchers, including those at the Julius Krutt-
linear manner to the change until a new point of equilibrium is schnitt Research Centre (JKMRC) and the university of Cape Town
reached. This is illustrated conceptually in Fig. 1. Because of the (UCT), have measured the response of power and mill load to mill
highly interactive form of this feed-back loop SAG mills can be dif- filling, Powell et al. (2001), Morrell (2003), Shi (2003). In these
ficult to stabilise. Stabilisation control can be achieved with a good studies it was clearly shown that the power and throughput curves
control system, holding the mill within a window of pre-deter- peak at different mill fillings.
mined operating conditions. The plots in Fig. 2 show the variation in mill power draw with
mill filling gathered from daily operation data at the Impala Plati-
num operation, and clearly show the peak in power with mill fill-
ing. They also show how the shape of the power peak varies with
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 7 3365 5893; fax: +61 7 3365 5999.
E-mail addresses: malcolm.powell@uq.edu.au (M.S. Powell), Andre.Vander-
ball filling. The higher ball load gives a higher peak power, and a
Westhuizen@uct.ac.za (A.P. van der Westhuizen), aubrey.mainza@uct.ac.za (A.N. sharper peak. Thus the power peak curve is clearly linked to the
Mainza). average density of the charge in the mill. Although this was a
0892-6875/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2009.01.008
626 M.S. Powell et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 625–632
3,000
20% balls
35% balls
2,800
2,600
power, kW
2,400
2,200
2,000
1,800
1,600
1,400
35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115
Load, t
sag hard oc ag hard oc bold cross on each curve. This data was used to establish the test
sag soft oc sag soft cc conditions for the survey work, and was also useful for the opera-
ag soft cc tors. These curves are considerably different to those of the Meren-
2500
sky mill, with the location of the grind peak at a low filling value of
31%.
The act of establishing the mill response for a range of mill fill-
2000
throughput, tph
50
2400
45
40 2000
% -75um
1800
35
1600
30
1400
25
1200
20 1000
20 25 30 35 40 45 50
% filling
%-75mm, Mill Feed, tph * 10 Mill Power, kW
Fig. 4. Grindcurves for Merensky mill. Vertical lines indicate the peak values of each trend. Vertical lines indicate the peak values of each trend.
100 2000
95 1800
% -75um, throughput, tph
1600
90
1400
85
Power, kW
1200
80
1000
75
800
70
600
65 400
60 200
20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0
% filling
Table 1 unlikely that either the operator or control system has any idea of
Grindcurve peaks for Kopanang. how dramatically the mill grind is responding to this change. Thus
Throughput (tph) Power (kW) Grind (%) 75 lm in optimising the operation of variable speed mills, speed should
% Filling 32.5 35.4 31.1 be included as a key variable. It should also be noted that speed
Max value 89 1913 88 selection needs to also accommodate the design and state of wear
of the liners, typically holding back on speed for new liners and
pushing up the speed for worn liners.
From a control perspective, this complex response offers con-
diameter, by 4.35 m internal length variable speed SAG mill, with a siderable opportunity to manipulate the mill performance. For a gi-
ball filling of 7.9%, operating in open circuit, feeding a ball mill. ven operating window of desired range of throughput and grind,
These were conducted through a combination of full surveys with there is a family of operating conditions that can be chosen to drive
associated crash stops, and snapshot surveys. These established an the mill towards the optimal economic regime, based on the
excellent (and possibly unique) data set of a mill operation over a throughput–grind trade-off.
wide range of mill fillings and speeds. The only limits imposed
were mechanical: the mill overfilling into the feed chute limited 3.1. Fitting the curves
the top end: and balls impacting on the liners, especially for the
higher speeds, limited the lower filling range. Even with such an intensive set of work, the number of data
A summary of the outcomes are presented in Fig. 6. This shows points per condition are limited to four or five, and more impor-
the grindcurves for four speeds ranging from 60% to 75% of critical, tantly there is a limited range over which the data can practically
and mill fillings ranged from 18% to 45%. be collected. It is therefore desirable to derive a curve fitting tech-
What is immediately clear from these curves is: nique by which consistent and physically meaningful fits can be
obtained. To this end, a number of known physical constraints
the throughput and power peaks do not coincide, were applied, as illustrated in Table 2.
the shape of the curves is dramatically affected by mill speed,
the peak values change considerably as the speed varies, Table 2
the grind becomes considerably coarser as mill speed increases, Curve fitting constraints.
the throughput increases with mill speed.
% Filling Throughput Power Grind – % passing
0 0 No load % In feed
An immediate deduction that can be drawn upon viewing these
100 0 No load Asymptote value
outcomes, is that in varying mill speed as a control parameter, it is
5000 100
90
Power, kW & Feed x 10, tph
4500
60% crit 65% crit
4000 80
Grind, % -150um
3500 70
3000 60
2500 50
2000 40
1500 30
17.7 23.3
1000 20
10 20 30 40 50 0.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0
5000 100
Power, kW & Feed x 10, tph
4500 90
70% crit 75% crit
4000 80
Grind, % -150um
3500 70
3000 60
2500 50
2000 40
1500 30
30.7 36.8 47.3 33.4 34.6 39.3
1000 20
10 20 30 40 5 0 10 20 30 40 50
Fig. 6. SAG mill performance curves for the South Deep mill (van der Westhuizen and Powell, 2006).
M.S. Powell et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 625–632 629
Grindrate curves
300
grindrate peaks
50 300
250
45
40
200 250
tph -150um
35
throughput,tph
150 30
% filling
25 200
100 20
15
50 150
10 max, % fill
5 max, tph-150um
0
0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 0 100
Filling, % 55 65 75
For zero filling, throughput must be zero, and power will be the It is clear from this that the mill filling at which peak production
no-load value. For 100% filling, the same constraints apply. Once occurs increases with mill speed, from about 25% up to 43% filling.
the mill is packed solid with ore it reverts to being a spinning solid This is a dramatic variation in optimal operating point as the mill
cylinder. The only extra power draw over an empty mill would be speed is varied.
any additional frictional losses at the bearings. Without any theo- Due to the lack of data at the high fillings at which the peak for
retical derivation of the form of the curves, it was found that a sim- 75% critical speed occurs, the location of this peak is rather uncer-
ple second order polynomial gave the best fit to the range of data. tain, but it undoubtedly occurs at above 40% filling. What is partic-
ularly interesting from an operation point of view is that the peak
3.2. Maximum production production is at a higher filling than the mill is ever operated at.
This highlights a potential opportunity in mill operation, provided
A simple optimisation function could be used to maximise the the mill does not hit operational constraints, such as damage to the
tons per hour of recoverable product, such as 150 lm. This is feed chute seal.
shown in Fig. 7.
The grind-rates are a product of throughput and % 150 lm in 3.3. Maximum throughput
the mill product, and hence the scatter on both sets of data affect
the product. Despite the natural scatter, distinct trends are ob- Pushing for maximum throughput is probably what the opera-
served. Pinning down the rate of production to zero at zero filling, tors and the control systems are best trained to do. However, what
and fitting the simple second order polynomials yields the curves is most likely not appreciated, is that as the mill speed is varied, the
presented in the grind-rate graph. These curves were then differen- target mill filling should also be changed. This is clear from the feed
tiated to derive the peak values, as presented in the grind-rate rate curves in Fig. 8.
peaks curves. This gives the mill filling and speed at which the The mill filling values at which peak throughput is achieved
peaks occur, and the peak production values. Thus, for any speed vary from 23% to 34% as the mill speed is increased. It is also clear
the two curves show at what value of filling the throughput peaks, just how sensitive the throughput is to mill speed. The ‘Mer fill’
and the corresponding throughput rate. point on the graph gives the mill filling at which the Merensky mill
400 35
Feedrate, tph
350 30 400
throughput,tph
300 25
% Fill
250
20 300
200
15
150
max, % fill
10 200
100 mer fill
50 5
max, tph
0 0 100
0 10 20 30 40 50 55 65 75
Filling, % Mill % Critical Speed
Tph, 75crit Tph, 70crit Tph, 65crit Tph, 60crit
4500 50
45
4000
40 4000
Power, kW
% Fill
3500 35
30
3000
25 3500
2500 max, % f ill
20
mer % f ill
2000 15
max, Power
10 3000
1500 55 65 75
90.0 100
80.0 90
% -150um, % Fill
70.0 80
% -150um
60.0 70
50.0 60
40.0 50
30.0 40
20.0 % filling
30
10.0 % -150um
20
0.0 Mer -75um fill
0 10 20 30 40 50 10
55 65 75
% Filling
Mill % Critical Speed
75% 70% 65% 60%
presented earlier achieved peak throughput. This is very close to was seriously considered for a period of ore shortage and low
the value for this far larger mill. throughputs. Only difficulties in diverting the cyclone underflow
prevented this from being trialled.
3.4. Power peaks
The plots of power give smooth and consistent responses, Fig. 9. 4. Grindcurves for industry
The intercepts were tied down to the no-load power of the mill.
What is interesting is that the peak power is predicted to be at a A key aspect to appreciate about grindcurves is that they change
consistent 50% mill filling, so it is not a function of mill speed. with ore type. These researchers have not had the opportunity to
Interestingly the Merensky mill power peaked at around 37% mill systematically calibrate a mill with known changes in ore, but
filling, so the mill had a considerably different power response. would find such an exercise of great benefit. This is where the
The power peak plot also emphasises the strong dependence of method can be particularly useful at operations. If a generic form
power on mill speed. of the response curves can be established, then it is anticipated
that the mill response can be recalibrated with a few snapshot sur-
3.5. Fineness of grind veys when the ore changes. This will make this simple tool much
more powerful, as it will enable a responsive control system to
The grind responses are given in Fig. 10. These change in a sur- implemented. In fact the shape for the curves will indicate to a
prisingly smooth manner with filling, considering the intrinsic var- control system what ore is being treated. A shift in mill response
iation in feed that a SAG mill is subjected to. The grind peak curves can immediately trigger a search for a new operating regime, pos-
show a steady decline in percentage of final product as the mill is sibly with a bit of deliberate shifting of the mill operation for a per-
sped up. The curve tends to 100% passing 150 lm at 60% filling. iod so as to assist in selecting which response curve the mill is now
Most likely some oversize would sneak in with the discharge, but on. As the different parameters, throughput, power, and grind, re-
this does emphasise how fine the product can be made as the mill spond quite differently with very different curvatures and peaks in
is slowed down. For this site the possibility of stopping the ball mill their response curves, this renders such a search quite feasible.
M.S. Powell et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 625–632 631
mill 6 relationships -working graph tions can be established in one (often long) day, depending on
2100 100 the size and residence time of the mill, and unplanned changes
1700 70 bearing pressure read off the control system, so forms an indicator
power, kW
60 of mill mass.
"mass"
1500
throughput 50
40 5.2. Mill filling calibration
1300
30
1100 20 In all these considerations, the mill filling is the critical operat-
15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 4 0.0 ing parameter, yet in plant control rooms there are no percentage
filling, % mill filling indicators. Normally only a mill load reading obtained
from load cells under the feed and/or discharge ends, or a mill
Fig. 11. Snapshot survey grindcurve.
bearing back pressure reading are available. Thus, during mill sur-
veys a prime objective is to find the relationship between mill load
5. Practical calibration and mill filling. Accurate measurements of mill filling after mill
stops are used to develop this calibration. These can be obtained
Having hopefully demonstrated the power of grindcurves in from using the mill load reading taken over a few minutes just
mill control and optimisation, it remains to describe how to cali- prior to the mill stop. No special preparation is required. The key
brate a mill in practice. requirement is that the readings are obtained at significantly dif-
ferent mill fillings, so as to obtain a reliable correlation.
5.1. Snapshot surveys Two such filling–load curves are shown in Fig. 12, which were
both obtained on the South Deep SAG mill, but 8 months apart.
This survey methodology has been developed to allow the rapid The solid upper parts of the curves are the ‘normal’ filling–load
development of a grindcurve, while minimising sample processing curves, which are applicable from high mill fillings and shows
(Powell and Mainza, 2006). The principle is to select a test condi- the filling as the mill is ground down to a lower limit of the ball fill-
tion and stabilise the mill at that condition, usually by adjusting ing. As found out in many such exercises (Powell et al., 2001), the
the feed rate. The rule of thumb of three residence times is used response is remarkably linear for load cell measurements. This
as a guideline. Single-point sizing is then used to check the stability indicates that for a mill on load cells two points can reliably be
of the product (Powell and Mainza, 2006). Each sizing takes about used to calibrate the fill–load correlation. Thus one stop when
5 min, so a production mill can be checked at 10 min intervals to the mill is in normal operating condition, and one measurement
check for stable operation. Once stabilised a short 5–10 min sam- when the mill is ground down to ball load only is all that is re-
pling campaign is conducted with just the key streams being sam- quired. For modelling of mill performance and for calibrating the
pled. Four to six samples are cut over this period, and usually only ball filling for a given correlation, it is essential to conduct one
one cumulative sample per point. These samples are stored and the grind out. This measurement can correspond to a relining exercise,
mill operation moved to the next condition. or other convenient time. Once this correlation is established the
The mill condition is changed through sufficient range to find ball filling can be obtained from a measurement of mill filling
the peak in throughput, power, and fineness of product. The perti- and the mill load reading.
nent data is plotted as the tests progress so as to provide a live The broken lower parts of the curves show the filling–load rela-
measure of the test progress. When snapshot surveys are com- tionship if the balls were to be removed after grinding out. If the
bined with the single-point sizing technique, four to eight condi- calibration point of the load cells was for an empty unlined mill,
then the intercept can be predicted, as the mass of the remaining
liners. A shift from this, as in this instance, indicates that the mill
50 was likely calibrated for some intermediate mass liner.
Change in liner This calibration is a strong function of liner mass, as is clear
45 & ball fill mass from the calibration curves. In this instance, if the operators were
40 locked into a fixed load cell operating point, of say 190 ton, then
2
y = 0.2139x - 0.0579
35 1
Mill Filling, %
30 45.0
25
y = 0.183x - 9.0125 40.0
2
20 % filling = 0.429xP - 21.0xP + 274
Grinding out
(remove ore charge) 35.0
filling, %
15
10 30.0
Ball filling ~ 8-9%
5
Removing ball charge 25.0
0
-50 50 150 250 20.0
Change in
Load Cells Reading, t
liner mass
15.0
Jul'05; 7.9% ball; New lifters 22 24 26 28 30 32
Mar'06; 9.1% ball; Fully worn lifters relative bearing pressure
Fig. 12. Filling as a function of load cell readings – new and worn lifters. Fig. 13. Calibration of bearing back pressure to mill filling.
632 M.S. Powell et al. / Minerals Engineering 22 (2009) 625–632
the mill filling would increase from 25% to 40% as the mill liners key operating variables of throughput, power, and grind size form
wore down. The other likely alternative is that the ball load will a useful control optimisation tool. The responses change with ore
slowly drift up to compensate for the perceived loss of mill load. type, so can be used both as an indicator of changes in feed, and
In this application the mill liner variation is about 70 ton for a total to provide the key information required to deduce the optimal con-
mill load of 190 ton, nearly a 40% fraction of the measured load. trol point. This in turn can be used to set the target for an optimis-
The calibration of mill filling to bearing back pressure is non- ing control system. With knowledge of the downstream recovery
linear, as illustrated in Fig. 13, but just as consistent as for load response as a function of throughput and grind for different ore
cells. types, the control objective can be made a more sophisticated func-
tion aimed at maximising production of product within operating
5.3. Useful tools constraints. The grindcurves provide essential information for such
a strategy, in the form of the interaction between throughput and
It would be of great benefit to mill operation if this filling–load grind size as a function of the objective mill filling.
relationship can be continuously updated. Some ideas for calculat- It is proposed that it is worthwhile pursuing this line of inves-
ing this from minimal data are given in van der Westhuizen et al. tigation to a greater depth, so as to establish robust generic grind-
(2006). Basically when the mill is down for any reason the mill fill- curve relationships, that can be fitted to specific mills and for
ing can be checked. A predictive model of rate of wear of the liners different ore types with minimal calibration test work. The aim
can be used to provide an on-going correction to the load reading would be to bring this operating tool within the grasp of plant met-
as the liner wears. If this is well calibrated, then any drift off the allurgists and operators.
calibration curve indicates a change in ball loading, and can be
rectified. Acknowledgements
An issue with mill filling measurements is the time required for
safe mill entry. Typically after a full lock-out and check by the The generous support and cooperation of the South Deep Gold
safety officer on mill gas, entry can be obtained. For some sites Plant management is gratefully acknowledged. The support of
there is strict control on maximum internal temperature (that the plant manager, Stephen Joseph, the senior metallurgist, Ismail
can take hours to achieve) but generally permission can be gained Kola, and the milling section production supervisor, Dries Coetzee,
to enter for a limited period for inspection only, as opposed to is specifically mentioned. The assistance of the Kopanang and
physical work. Adequate planning and preparation in conjunction Amandelbult plant personnel is acknowledged, and AngloGold
with the health and safety officer and the development of sensible Ashanti and Anglo Platinum are thanked for permission to publish
and safe operating procedures can facilitate rapid filling checks. A the data. The long hours of our research staff and students, Jason
personal record for Powell on a large SAG mill from stop to start Waters, Michael Bekapi, Percy Condori, Sonny Mwansa, and Paul
and with all the lock-out and safety procedures properly observed, Green is gratefully acknowledged.
is 12 min. In general, less than half an hour should be easily achiev-
able. However, what this whole issue highlights is the potential References
usefulness of a rapid mill filling measurement device that can take
accurate readings without the need for personnel to enter the mill. Morrell, S., 2003. Modelling of the Load-throughput Response of AG/SAG Mills. Final
P9M Research Report, December 2003. AMIRA International, Melbourne, pp.
This is to be pursued by the authors. 77–85.
Mill filling measurements are easily subject to errors of a few Mwansa, S., Powell, M.S., Mainza, A.N., Condori, P., 2005. Findings from the Site
percentage points, unless carefully conducted. So procedures such Survey of AngloGold Ashanti Mponeng and Kopanang SAG Mills. Fourth P9N
Research Report, November. AMIRA International, Melbourne, pp. 142–153.
as those laid out by Powell and Mainza (2006) and in Napier-Munn Napier-Munn, T.J., Morrell, S., Morrison, R.D., Kojovic, T., 1996. Mineral
et al. (1999) should be employed. Comminution Circuits – Their Operation and Optimisation. Julius Kruttschnitt
A particularly useful technique for on-line measurement of mill Mineral Research Centre, University of Queensland, Australia.
Powell, M.S., Green, P., 2003. Testing the Influence of Mill Filling on SAG Mill
filling is the locating of the positions of the toe and shoulder of the Production. Final P9M Research Report, December 2003. AMIRA International,
charge. These are independent of mill mass, and thus of liner mass Melbourne, pp. 63–73.
and fraction of balls in the charge. A number of measurement tech- Powell, M.S., Morrell, S., Latchireddi, S., 2001. Developments in the understanding of
South African style SAG mills. Minerals Engineering 14, 1143–1153.
niques have been developed but none are yet of sufficient accuracy
Powell, M.S., Mainza, A.N., 2006. Extended grinding curves are essential to the
(or are insufficiently robust) to be commercially available for SAG comparison of milling performance. Minerals Engineering 19 (15), 1487–1494.
mills. doi:10.1016/j.mineng.2006.08.004.
Shi, F., 2001. Comparison of Cannington AG Milling Performance at Various Mill
Load Levels. Fouth P9M Research Report, December 2001. AMIRA International,
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van der Westhuizen, A.P.P., Powell, M.S., (2006). Milling curves as a tool for
characterising SAG mill performance. In: Mular, et al., (Ed.), Proceedings of
A technique to calibrate the performance of SAG mills has been International Autogenous and Semiautogenous Grinding Technology 2006,
proposed and data from a number of tests sites is presented. It is September 24–27, vol. I. CIM, pp. 217–232.
concluded that the relationships between filling and the three