Professional Documents
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MPP3601 B0 LS05 002
MPP3601 B0 LS05 002
Contents
References........................................................................................................ 36
1
Learning outcomes
mineral ores
2.1 Introduction
The first process that most of the ores undergo after they leave any mine (run-of-mine
separating the grains of ore minerals from the gangue minerals. It is done in order to
produce a concentrate containing most of the ore minerals and a tailing part (discard)
The importance of minerals processing is taken for granted today, but it is interesting
to reflect that less than a century ago, ore concentration was often a fairly crude
by the mining engineers. Over the years, however, minerals processing has developed
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The effective liberation of material of value remains one of the major challenges in
treating modern ores which, due to the increasing complexity and smaller grain sizes
of these ores, requires finer grinding to achieve the necessary degree of liberation
(Veasey & Will 1991). Vizcarra et al (2010) state that an effective means to liberate
Regrettably, efforts to address this liberation problem by way of fine and ultrafine
grinding have led to higher energy utilisation, because both the valuable (mineral) and
estimate that milling alone accounts for more than 30–50% of the total power used in
the concentration process, but this can rise to as high as 70% for hard or finely
dispersed and intergrown ores. The objective of this learning unit is for you to develop
2.2 Mineral
chemical composition and atomic structure (Wills 2005). For example, the mineral
pentlandite, which is the primary source of nickel metal, has a chemical composition
(Fe.Ni)9.S8. The mineral galena (PbS) is the primary source of lead metal. Another
example of a mineral is chalcopyrite, which is the primary source of copper metal and
The term “mineral” is often loosely used to describe anything of economic value mined
below the surface of the earth, e.g. coal. Coal is not a mineral but just a rock, since it
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does not have a homogeneous chemical and physical composition. Through a process
known as metamorphosis, which occurs over a period of more than 200 million years,
vegetative matter is turned into a sedimentary rock known as coal. There are different
content is usually used as a measure of the rank of coal. The order of the ranks starting
from the lowest is wood, peat, lignite, sub-bituminous, bituminous and anthracite.
The “grade” of a mineral ore is measured by the metal content of its most valuable
component. This grade may be expressed as a percentage, parts per million or parts
per billion, depending on the quantity of the elemental metal. Since all metals exist in
mineral form due to their degree of reactivity with their environment, particularly with
oxygen, carbon dioxide and sulphur, it is sometimes necessary to convert from metal
content to mineral content or from mineral content to metal content. These conversions
the end of learning unit 4 will illustrate how you can apply these conversions.
Table 2.1 shows an estimate of the relative abundance of metals deposited within the
earth’s crust. If these metals were to be found evenly distributed throughout the earth’s
nature. The minerals determine the vegetative matter and so vegetative matter can be
indicative of the presence of certain minerals. Certain minerals are naturally found in
association with specific types of rocks. There are mainly two types of rock material,
namely sedimentary and igneous. Sedimentary rocks result from stratified deposition
of matter, which is then subjected to pressure and temperature changes over millions
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of years. Igneous rocks result from the cooling of magma either within or outside the
earth’s crust.
as quantify the amount of minerals below the surface of the earth by inference from
geological studies. However, not all deposits can be mined profitably. When a deposit
contains valuable metals that are economically viable to exploit, the mineral deposit
Element Abundance Amt. in top 3.5 Element Abundance Amt. in top 3.5
(%) km (tons) (%) km (tons)
Oxygen 46.4 - Vanadium 0.014 1014 − 1015
Silicon 28.2 Chromium 0.01 -
Aluminium 8.2 1016 − 1018 Nickel 0.0075
Iron 5.6 Zinc 0.007
Calcium 4.1 - Copper 0.0055 1013 − 1014
Sodium 2.4 - Cobalt 0.0025
Magnesium 2.3 10 − 1018
16 Lead 0.0013
Potassium 2.1 - Uranium 0.00027
Titanium 0.57 10 − 1016
15 Tin 0.0002
Manganese 0.095 - Tungsten 0.00015 1011 − 1013
Barium 0.043 - Mercury 8 × 10−6
Strontium 0.038 - Silver 7 × 10−6
Rare earth 0.023 - Gold < 5 × 10−6
Zirconium 0.017 1014 − 1016 Platinum < 5 × 10−6 < 1011
metals
Source: Wills (2005)
usually classified in reference to the nature of the constituent value minerals. Sulphide
ores contain the value metal in a sulphide compound form, whereas native ores
contain the value metal in elemental form. Oxidised ores contain the value metal in an
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oxide, sulphate, silicate or carbonate form. Ores can also be classified either as simple
or complex. A simple ore contains only a single extractable value mineral, and a
complex ore contains more than a single value mineral that is economically viable to
its mineral composition. However, a complex ore can be both metallic and non-
metallic, depending on which minerals of interest are targeted for exploitation (Bailey
2003).
A precious group mineral (PGM) ore is a low-grade complex metallic ore usually
low as 1 part per million (ppm). PGM ores are normally associated with base metal
feasibility of exploiting PGM ores, minerals processors proposed a path in which the
PGM ore is first processed for base metals, namely copper (Cu) or nickel (Ni), and the
tailings processed for PGMs. These tailings would now have an improved grade in
terms of the PGMs resulting from the reverse concentration effect brought about by
A diamond ore is a simple non-metallic ore that is known to have the lowest grade of
all mined ores in the world. On top of that, diamond ores such as the Kimberlite ore
found in both South Africa and Botswana are notorious for not being associated with
any other mineral of economic value. The Debswana ore in Botswana has reported
grades as low as 0.02 ppm but still remains the richest diamond mine in the world.
This is because diamond deposits are exploited mainly for their gem-quality stones
that have the highest value of all minerals. The lower value industrial quality stones
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are obtained as by-products, although they are now facing stiff competition from
synthetic diamonds.
Mineral beneficiation is the science and art of extracting desirable metals from their
reduced in size (comminution) and then separated on the basis of their physical and/or
Our objective in mineral beneficiation is to split the material being processed into two
or more process streams. The intention is for the minerals of interest to be diverted
into one stream, the concentrates, whereas the other minerals present are diverted
into a second stream, the tailings. Sometimes when the minerals are difficult to
separate, a third stream called the middlings is produced. This has a mineral content
that is intermediate between that of a concentrate and the tailings. A middlings stream
value of the ore, can be removed by the use of mineral beneficiation techniques.
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➢ To produce a concentrate: The objective here is to enrich the material
to contain more than one desirable mineral. In this situation it is necessary not
only to extract the concentrate and discard the gangue, but also to process the
Mineral beneficiation starts when “run-of-mine” ore arrives at the processing plant from
the mine site. It involves the preparation and “liberation” of the value mineral from
gangue minerals (comminution stage) and the separation of these value minerals from
Run of Mine
Crushing Mineral
Oversize concentrate
Screening
Mineral extraction
(separation/concentration)
Grinding
Tailings
Oversize
(gangue)
Classification
Comminution stage
tion for liberation of valuables)
Figure
Figure 1. 2.1: Typical
Typical mineral
Mineral beneficiation
Processing flow sheet
Flowsheet
The comminution stage is the most important unit operation in the beneficiation of
ores. The primary objective of carrying out comminution in the minerals processing
industry is not merely to reduce the particle size of the feed material, but also to free
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(liberate) the constituent minerals that make up an ore so that valuable minerals can
be separated from the minerals of little value, as illustrated by figure 2.2. However, this
Ore
Gangue
the size of particles to a level at which grinding can be carried out, in order to liberate
the valuable minerals. Grinding is the last stage in the process of comminution, and is
also the most important part of the process of liberating valuable minerals from
gangue. Grinding has changed very little in the past 50 years, and continues to be
carried out in tumbling mills. It is well known that these are extremely energy-inefficient
and have many limitations. The reasons that conventional mills have been used for so
long are that they are relatively simple devices, and are continuous, high-throughput
machines that can be fairly easily controlled to produce the desired product particle
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Laboratory and industrial grinding tests have shown that grinding aids can influence
the comminution process significantly. It is generally known that water is the most
commonly used grinding aid, and that slurry density plays an important role in the
comminution process. The density of slurry determines the distribution of solid charge
in the mill, with migration of particles from the tumbling zone to the mill periphery as
the solid concentration is increased (Tangsathitkulchai & Austin 1989). The changes
in the circulation path of the mill charge in wet grinding lead to variations in the grinding
performance and mill’s power consumption. The amount of water that has to be added
and Austin (1989) report a maximum in breakage rates at a slurry density of about 45
volume per cent solids in water. However, the optimum slurry density changes in
accordance with the specific objectives of a particular grinding process, and the
mineralogical composition and physical properties of the ore. The advantage of wet
over dry grinding lies in the manner water has of bringing and keeping particles into
Wet grinding is performed in tumbling mills where the tumbling action of the grinding
medium reduces the size of the ore particles. The grinding medium can be steel rods,
or balls, the ore itself (autogenous grinding) or a combination of the ore and balls
the laws of probability, and the degree of grinding of an ore particle depends on the
probability of it being caught between the grinding media (Metin, Güleç & Cingitaş
➢ mill power
➢ mill type
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➢ mode of operation
➢ rotational speed
➢ product quality
➢ mill conditions
➢ screening
The power demand (kW) of a conventional ball mill is a function of its known
dimensions and basic operating conditions. The Hogg and Fuerstenau Model (1972),
Harris Power Model (Harris, Schnock & Arbiter 1970), Beeck’s Model (1970) and Moys
Model (Dong & Moys 2003) are some of the power models used in the comminution
industry.
The most common type of mill for grinding is a tumbling ball mill. A ball mill is a
relatively easy to construct, reliable, easy to control and maintain, and has low energy
requirements per ton of product. A ball mill is an all-purpose mill that uses steel balls
as grinding media. It is particularly suitable for fine grinding, for the following reasons
➢ Ball mills have greater breakage forces than rod mills of the same diameter.
contact occurs along a line. Thus, for the same diameter and mass of grinding
medium, the area of contact is less with balls than it is with rods. Greater
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➢ In ball mills, the presence of large particles does not impede the breakage of
number of contact points should therefore increase the grinding capacity. In ball
The mode of operation of a tumbling ball mill (figure 2.3) is as follows: The rotation
carries balls and granular material round the mill and as the balls tumble down, they
strike particles caught against other balls. In addition, the general movement of the
balls in the bed will rub particles between them. The three types of size reduction which
can occur are caused by fracture, chipping, abrasion or attrition. The measured values
of the primary progeny fragment distribution are the total of the fragments produced
by each mechanism. At low rotational speed the balls have a relatively gentle tumbling
action, but as the speed increases, the tumbling action converts to a cascading state.
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Figure 2.3: Mode of operation of a ball mill (Danha 2013)
The tumbling action in a mill is a result of the rotation of the mill about its axis. The
rates and modes of particle (powder) breakage vary with the mill speed. At low
rotational speeds, the components of the load remain in contact with one another, and
the tumbling action is called cascading. The dominant size reduction in this
mechanism is attrition. At high speeds, the components of the load are ejected into
free flight before impacting on the mill liners. This tumbling action is called cataracting
and the dominant size reduction is by impact. The net power required to turn a mill is
The quality of the product obtained from the grinding circuit is often specified by one
or more of the following measurements: the weight fraction of product passing one or
two preselected sieve sizes, the specific surface area, or the achievement of a
accomplished or desired. A term often used is reduction ratio, which is the ratio of the
maximum particle size in the feed to that in the product. To calculate the reduction
ratio, it is necessary to characterise the size of the feed and size of the product by
single numbers. This ratio is commonly taken to be the ratio of 80% passing sizes of
which characteristic is most easily correlated to the desired performance of the end
product.
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2.5.1.6 Mill conditions
reactor. Below we briefly discuss some of the mill conditions that need to be specified
a) Critical speed
The critical speed of the mill is defined as the rotational speed at which the balls have
stopped tumbling and have just started to centrifuge on the mill case.
Where
The maximum power drawn by a mill occurs at different fractions of critical speed from
one mill to another, depending on the mill diameter, ratio of ball to mill diameter and
the ball and powder filling conditions. This maximum is usually found in the range of
70–80% of critical speed. The rotational speed of the mill is normally specified by the
b) Ball filling
The rate of breakage depends on how much of the mill volume is filled with balls. The
fractional ball filling, J, is usually expressed as the fraction of the mill filled by the ball
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bed at rest. It is conventional to define constant formal bed porosity for all calculations.
c) Ball diameter
The power required by the mill varies with the ball diameter, and an incorrect choice
of ball diameter results in direct inefficiency. A charge of balls that are too small causes
a slumping in the charge, a low power draw, plus excessive wear rates of the balls. A
different ball diameter allows the same mass of grinding media in the mill, but will
achieve a different extent of grinding and power draw. The optimum choice of ball size
depends on the feed size distribution, the desired product size and the balance
d) Mill filling
It has been established that for a given ball loading, it is undesirable to either underfill
or overfill the mill with powder. In the case of a low filling, much of the energy of the
tumbling balls is taken up in steel-to-steel contact, whereas at high filling the powder
cushions the breakage action. Mill filling by feed is expressed as the fraction of mill
(2.3)
To relate the particle loading to the ball loading, the formal bulk volume of powder is
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𝑈 = 𝑓𝑐 ⁄0.4𝐽 (2.4)
Where
𝑈 = 0.6 to 1.1 = A good feed/ball loading ratio to give efficient ball loading in the mill
𝑈 = Fraction of the spaces between the balls at rest which is filled with feed
(Hlabangana et al 2016)
e) Slurry density
Slurry density is defined by the fraction by weight of solids in the mixture. The
rheological properties of a slurry are better defined by the volume fraction of solids, 𝑐:
Where
The solids to liquids ratio in a wet grinding process has a strong influence on the
operation of the mill because it affects the viscosity of the slurry, and hence the rate
at which it flows through the mill. This in turn affects the period during which the solids
are resident in the mill, and thus the extent to which they are milled. The solids to water
ratio also affects the grinding action in the mill. A slurry that is too dilute leads to
excessive contact between the components of the medium, which gives high rates of
medium, which reduces the grinding capacity. The slurry density therefore has to be
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2.5.1.7 Screening
carried out on relatively coarse material since the efficiency decreases as the fineness
increases. Fine screens are expensive, very fragile and tend to become blocked with
in size (Austin & Rogers 1985), whereas finer sizing is normally done by classification
or laser diffraction. Screening can be performed wet or dry, but even in dry screening,
wet washing is required. The main purposes of screening in the minerals processing
➢ to prepare a closely sized end product, because the final product specification
➢ to prevent oversize material from passing to the next stage in crushing and
grinding operations
Types of screens
A screen is a surface with a number of apertures of given dimensions. There are many
types of screens, which are broadly classified as either stationary or moving. These
➢ Stationary screens
• sieve bends
• the grizzly
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➢ Moving screens
• revolving screens
• shaking screens
• reciprocating screens
• gyratory screens
• vibrating screens
After particles have been size reduced and screened, the next step in the process is
ambiguous because ore particles do not have definite shapes, like spheres and cubes.
The size of a spherical particle is defined by its diameter, and a cubical particle by the
length of a side. Even for particles of regular shape, particle size does not have a
unique meaning. In minerals processing an indirect measure of size is used, and the
size of a particle is defined as the smallest whole opening in a square mesh screen
through which a particle will fall. As previously noted, if the particles are too small to
be measured using sieves, other methods like laser diffraction or light scattering can
It is often necessary to divide the particle population into groups, each identified by the
smallest and largest size in the group. Screening using mesh sizes in geometric series
classes allows for the description of the behaviour of classes of particles rather than
that of individual particles. A representative size is associated with each particle size
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class, and it is assumed that all particles in the class will behave as if they had a size
PSD can be measured experimentally using sieves. The data obtained by screening
is normally presented in tabular form that shows mesh size against the fraction smaller
than that mesh. Graphical representations are generally preferred because of their
different graphical coordinate systems have become popular, some with a view to
making the particle size distribution function plot a straight line or close to a straight
line. In some of these graphical plots, the particle size axis is plotted on a logarithmic
coordinate scale, and various options are used for the ordinate scale. In other
graphical plots, specially ruled graph papers are available for PSD plots (Vdocuments
[n.d.]).
The expression of the particle size of a powder in terms of a single linear dimension is
often required. For coarse particles, the size of the opening through which 80% of the
material will pass is arbitrarily chosen. This size d80 is a useful rough comparative
measure for the size of material which has been through a crusher. A mean size will
describe only one particular characteristic of the powder and it is important to decide
what that characteristic is before the mean is calculated. Thus, it may be desirable to
define the size of particle such that its mass or its surface or its length is the mean
value for all the particles in the system. It is usually assumed that each of the particles
in the system has the same shape. Consider a unit mass of particles consisting of n1
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𝑥1 = 𝑛1 𝑘1 𝑑13 𝜌𝑠 (2.6)
Instead of fraction of total mass, if the surface in each fraction is plotted against size,
The mean surface diameter is defined as the size of particle which is such that if all
the particles are of this size, the total surface will be the same as in the mixture:
∑ 𝑛1 𝑑13
𝑑𝑠 = ∑ (2.7)
𝑛1 𝑑12
Shown in this section are some of the different methods of charting sizing tests. An
example size distribution from a set of test sieves is shown in table 2.2. Size fractions
are normally identified by their top size and bottom size, as shown in column (A).
The last size fraction, in this case -45 micro-metres, is material that goes through all
of the screens and is collected in the bottom pan (the final pan product).
Table 2.2: Raw particle size distribution data from a set of test sieves
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The nominal sieve size, column (B), is the size of the openings in the sieves. The
individual weight retained, column (C), is the weight in grams that is retained on each
sieve in the stack. Column (D) is calculated from the values in column (C) by dividing
each individual weight by the total weight and multiplying by 100%. The cumulative
% passing, column (E), is the fraction of the total weight that passes through each
individual screen. It is calculated for a given size by subtracting the material retained
on all of the coarser sieves from 100%. For example, in table 2.2, the cumulative %
The last entry in column E (corresponding to the final pan product) must be equal to
zero if no mistakes were made in the calculation. The cumulative % retained, column
(F), is the fraction of the total weight that has been retained by a given screen and
all screens coarser than it. Cumulative % retained plus cumulative % passing at any
given size must equal 100%. Individual % weight retained can be directly plotted
against the sieve size, as shown in figure 2.4. This is a frequency or probability
density function (PDF) plot and is plotted either on arithmetic axes or semi-
logarithmic axes.
In a normal arithmetic plot, the numbers are uniformly spaced on the axis. In a
logarithmic plot, the numbers are spaced according to their logarithms, so the larger
numbers are closer together than the smaller numbers. The logarithmic plot is
preferred for size distributions, because it allows a wide range of particle sizes to be
plotted without crowding together the points for the finer size fractions. The PDF plot
is used to determine what size fractions contain most of the material. The cumulative
% passing or cumulative distribution function (CDF) can also be plotted versus size,
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as shown in figure 2.4. Normally, only the cumulative % passing or cumulative %
retained is plotted, not both, since one is the inverse of the other.
Figure 2.4: Probability density function (PDF) and cumulative distribution function
(CDF) plots (Danha 2013)
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Figure 2.5 shows the Gates–Gaudin–Schumann plot, which is a graph of the
cumulative percentage of material passing a sieve size versus the sieve size. In this
type of plot, both axes use the logarithmic scale, and most of the data points should
lie in a straight line. The equation for the straight line section of the plot is given by
𝑦 = (𝑥/𝑘)^𝑎 (2.8)
Where
y = Cumulative % passing
x = Particle size
k = Size modulus
a = Distribution modulus
If we take logs on both sides of equation 2.8, it converts to a straight line given by
equation 2.9:
Where
(2 − 𝑎 × 𝑙𝑜𝑔(𝑘)) = y–intercept
The size modulus is a measure of how coarse the size distribution is, and can be
determined from the graph by extrapolating the straight-line section of the plot up to
the 100% passing mark and finding the corresponding size value. The distribution
modulus is a measure of how broad the distribution is, and can be obtained by
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Figure 2.6: A typical Rosin–Rammler plot (Danha 2013)
Figure 2.6 shows a typical Rosin–Rammler plot that is frequently used to describe the
PSD of powders of various types and sizes. The function is particularly suited to
𝐷 𝑛
𝑅 = 𝑒𝑥𝑝 [− ( ) ] (2.10)
𝐷𝑚
Where
D = Particle size
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All the above PSD representation methods are limiting in that they do not provide
connectivity between the different states of a grinding process. The attainable region
(AR) method, which is briefly discussed in the next section, was developed at the
The AR method has been successfully applied in the field of chemical reactor
engineering for choosing and optimising reactor configurations. It was first proposed
addressed the issue of finding the optimal reactor structure for a given set of competing
reactions and associated kinetics. He noted that for given kinetics and feeds, it might
be possible to find the set of all possible output concentrations from all possible reactor
systems. He called the set of all possible products the attainable region (Danha et al
2015). There are two reasons why all the possible products have to be found:
will occur.
optimum. What the global optimum is will not be known until all the possible
What follows covers some of the terminology that is frequently used in the description,
o State variable
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A state variable is one of the parameters that is used to describe the mathematical
"state" of a dynamic system. Intuitively, the state of a system describes enough about
The objective function is the function that needs to be optimised. This may be the
The listed coordinates of a point that specify the product of a system are termed the
point can also be considered as a vector from the origin. The characteristic vector
characterises the state (or composition) of a stream, and must contain sufficient
variables to describe fully the reaction kinetics and the objective function.
The reaction vector contains the rates of formation of the components and thus the
kinetics of all the reactions. The reaction vector gives the instantaneous change in
The only other process that may occur in any given system is mixing, which can occur
in two modes: on its own or inside a reactor. The former occurs when two process
streams combine to form a single process stream. Mixing, like reaction, is represented
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by a vector that points from the stream being considered to the stream it is being mixed
with.
Finding the AR requires an iterative construction process. However, there are a set of
necessary conditions or "rules" that make it possible to check whether all the possible
products have been found to help construct the region. The next step, finding the
optimum, entails the relatively simple procedure of looking for the point on the
boundary where the objective function is optimised. This will usually be found where
one of the lines of constant value for the objective function just touches the boundary
of the AR. In most cases the objective function will be at a tangent to the boundary it
touches. After that, based on knowledge of the processes that are required to reach
the optimal point, the engineer can determine an optimal flow sheet (Danha 2016).
Since milling can also be considered a rate process in which the various size classes
break from the larger sizes to the smaller in a manner analogous to reactor systems,
the AR approach has been extended and successfully applied to comminution. The
power of the AR approach is that it describes the behaviour of different size classes
throughout the milling process, and can represent PSDs as single points in space.
This allows the connectivity of the points to be used for process description and
optimisation purposes.
requires us to describe the set of all possible outputs for a system. The work done by
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comminution processes carried out under dry conditions only. These researchers
investigated the application of the approach to the milling of a test material, silica sand
for the former and silica sand and quartzite for the latter.
desired and what is currently available. These can include, but are not limited to,
grinding energy, grinding time and mass fraction of different size classes. Any number
of size classes can be considered, but typically three are used (Danha 2015), grouped
as
• the feed size class, which is taken as the top size class or size class 1 (M1)
• the middle size class, which is the result of a moderate extent of breakage and
• the fines size class, which is the result of a relatively large extent of breakage
0,4 30 minutes
15 minutes
Mass fraction in size class 2
0,3
10 minutes
0,2 60 minutes
5 minutes
Feed
90 minutes
0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7
Mass fraction in size class 1
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Figure 2.7: Typical AR plot of mass fraction of material in the intermediate size class
versus mass fraction of material in the feed size class (Danha 2013)
procedure outlined by Khumalo et al (2006) and Metzger et al (2009) and shows the
mass fraction of material in size class 2 and size class 1 in size class 2 versus size
class 1 phase space. Each point on the graph corresponds to a different duration of
mill operation, starting from a single feed point. This simple plot provides some very
➢ The boundary curve describes the processes used, and can be interpreted in
required.
➢ The turning point of the curve isolates an optimum solution if the objective is to
maximise the mass in the intermediate size class. This solves the optimisation
problem and provides the process control policy needed to fulfil that objective,
Apart from being relatively wasteful of energy, tumbling mills are also inefficient with
regard to mineral liberation because of the indiscriminate nature of the grinding force.
Accordingly, engineers have made efforts to use tensile forces in an attempt to draw
existing fractures further apart (Hlabangana et al 2017). One of the earlier versions
was the Snyder process (Cavanaugh & Rogers 1974), which was a method of
reducing the size of material by applying air, gas or steam under pressure in a pressure
29
chamber. The material is broken by the stresses induced when the sudden release of
that pressure causes the material to be ejected along a duct and into a receiving
chamber. This process was believed to improve the liberation of minerals at generally
coarser sizes.
The next attempt to bring about selective liberation of minerals from an ore entailed a
1984). This process involved the application of electric and ultrasonic energy in order
preferential liberation from an ore introduced a new idea developed at the Royal
traditional assumptions by causing rocks to fragment from the inside rather than
generate plasma in the rocks and thus explode them from within.
The fourth attempt was based on an idea developed at the Camborne School of Mines
in England (Wills, Parker & Binns 1987), and entailed heat treatment of the crushed
ore prior to conventional grinding. A hard-rock tin ore was heated to 600 oC before
owing to the micro-cracks produced in the ore minerals. This resulted in greatly
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The fifth attempt at encouraging preferential breakage and liberation of valuable
minerals was also developed at the Camborne School of Mines in England (Clarke &
Wills 1989), where preliminary test work had shown that high-pressure roller
comminution may improve the liberation of cassiterite from its gangue minerals.
Considerable interest has recently been focused on the high-pressure roller press,
which was developed in Germany. This press is essentially a highly sophisticated type
evidence to show that liberation can be improved by using these devices, which are
currently being used successfully to reduce the size of cement and limestone, and
A mineral ore is described by a mixture of value minerals and its associated gangue
material. The degree of interlocking, grain size distribution, dissemination, texture and
Techniques such as particle sizing, elemental, diffraction and image analysis are
means of obtaining the information required. Some of the methods used to provide the
quantitative data about mineral composition, association and liberation of the sample
material are petrographic and image analysis. Imaging and image analysis are
prerequisite for mineral identification and quantification (Fandrich 2007). Optical image
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analysis systems are capable of differentiating between mineral species on the basis
Simple scanning electron microscope (SEM) back-scatter colour image analysis can
acquire images rapidly, but falls short in that it cannot identify the actual mineral
species or quantify them (Benvie 2007). This is why it is normally used in combination
scattered electrons (BSE) image analysis, in which a series of BSE images are
collected and processed to produce liberation data, is the most basic liberation
analysis tool.
Example 2.1
a) Complete the following size analysis table:
600 1.25
424 15.52
300 45.1
212 160.4
150 125.2
106 97.7
75 64.3
32
53 50.6
0 (Pan) 70.5
Total:
b) Plot cumulative % wt. passing versus size, and estimate the 80% passing size.
c) Draw a Gates–Gaudin–Schumann plot, and determine the values for the size
d) Produce an attainable region plot of M2 versus M1, and comment on the turning
Example 2.2
The size distribution of a dust sample as measured by a microscope is as shown in
the table below. Convert this data to obtain the distribution on a mass basis and then
calculate the specific surface. Assume that the particles are spherical and have a
0–2 2 000
2–4 600
4–8 140
8 – 12 40
12 – 16 15
16 – 20 5
20 – 24 2
33
Solution
𝑥1 = 𝑛1 𝑘1 𝑑13 𝜌𝑠
Where
k1 = Constant
𝑛1 𝑘1 𝑑13 𝜌𝑠
𝑥1 =
∑ 𝑛𝑘𝑑 3 𝜌𝑠
In this case:
d n 𝑛𝑘𝑑 3 𝜌𝑠 x
34
∑ 𝑛1 𝑑13
𝑑𝑠 =
∑ 𝑛1 𝑑12
And hence
d n 𝑛𝑑 2 𝑛𝑑 3
1 2 000 2 000 2 000
3 600 5 400 16 200
6 140 5 040 30 240
10 40 4 000 40 000
14 15 2 940 41 160
18 5 1 620 29 160
22 2 968 21 296
180 056
𝑇ℎ𝑢𝑠: 𝑑𝑠 = = 8.20µ𝑚
21 968
𝜋
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑎 𝑝𝑎𝑟𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑙𝑒 8.20𝜇𝑚 𝑖𝑛 𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟 = × 8.203 = 288.7𝜇𝑚3
6
211.2 𝜇𝑚2
𝐴𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐 𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑒 = ⁄ 3
288.7 𝜇𝑚
𝜇𝑚2⁄
= 0.731 𝜇𝑚3
2
= 0.731 × 106 𝑚 ⁄𝑚3
35
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