Impact Crusher

Utilizes impact rather than compression Impact from sharp blows applied at high speed to free-falling ores The beaters transfer the kinetic to ore particles. The internal stress of ore increase and finally break the ores into finer pieces. Widely used in quarry (improved product shape) Common impact crushers : hammer mill and impact mill

Hammer Mill
The hammers are pivoted to move out of the path of oversize material. The pivoted hammers exert less force than rigidly attached. The exit from the mill is perforated, so that the oversize materials are retained for further impacting.

Hammer Mill
This mill is designed to give the particles velocities of the order of that of the hammers. Fracture is either due to the severity of impact with the hammers or to the subsequent impact with the casing or grid. Much of the size reduction is by attrition (high proportion of fines in product). Widely used in non-abrasive ores such as limestone and coal.

Impact Mill
The ore falls tangentially on to a rotor receiving a glancing impulse, which sends it spinning towards the impact plates. The velocity imparted is deliberately restricted to a fraction of the velocity of the rotor to avoid enormous stress and probable failure of the rotor bearings. The fractured pieces which can pass between the clearances of the rotor and breaker plate enter a second chamber created by another breaker plate, This grinding path is designed to reduce flakiness and gives very good cubic particles.

Impact Mill

Impact Mill
This impact mill gives a much better control of product size than does the hammer mill and saves energy. The blow bars are reversible to even out wear, and can easily be removed and replaced. It can reduce 1.5 m top size run-of-mine ore to 20cm, at capacities of around 1500 t/h or up to 3000 t/h. It should not be used on ores containing over 15% silica since it can provide high reduction ratio (40:1). It is suitable with non-abrasive ores such as limestone.

Rotary Coal Breaker

It is often used with large tons of coal. It consists of a cylinder of 1.8 3.6 m in diameter and length 1.5-2.5 times. It is massively constructed with perforated walls (perforating size = size of ore to be broken). The machine utilizes differential breakage, the coal being much more friable than the associated stones and shales, and rubbish such as wood & steel . The small particles of coal and shale quickly fall through the holes, while the larger lumps are retained, and are lifted by longitudinal lifters.

Rotary Coal Breaker

Crushing Circuits and Control

Grinding Mills
Grinding - the last stage in the process of comminution is a combination of impact, chipping and abrasion. It can be done dry or in suspension in water. It is performed in rotating cylindrical steel vessels which contain a charge of loose crushing bodies - the grinding medium- which is free to move inside the mill, thus comminuting the ore particles. According to the ways by which motion is imparted to the charge, grinding mills are generally classified into two types: tumbling mills and stirred mills.

Tumbling Mills
The mill shell is rotated and motion is imparted to the charge via the mill shell. The grinding medium may be steel rods, balls, or ore itself. Tumbling mills are typically employed in the mineral industry for coarse-grinding processes, in which particles between 5 and 250 mm are reduced in size to between 40 and 300 m. Common tumbling mills : ball mills, rod mills and autogenous mills

Stirred Mills
The mill shell with either a horizontal or a vertical orientation is stationary and motion is imparted to the charge by the movement of an internal stirrer. Fine grinding media inside the mill are agitated or rotated by a stirrer, which typically comprises a central shaft to which are attached pins or discs of various designs. Stirred mills find application in fine (15-40 m) and ultra-fine (<15 m) grinding.

Grinding Mills
Correct grinding (an economic optimum particle size) is the key to good mineral processing. Under-grinding of ore degree of liberation is too low for economic separation Over-grinding of ore wasting too much energy to needless size reduction Grinding consume most energy in comminution the greatest operation cost.

Advantage of Over-grinding
There is a special case where over-grinding can be advantage. In case of gold concentration, over-grinding increase the surface area, thus enhancing the efficiency of gold leaching by cyanide. The increased energy consumption can be offset by the increase gold recovery. This can be an advantage due to the fact that leaching is much more efficient on particles with large surface area relation to the mass.

Gold Processing Flow

1. Gyratory crusher 2. Conveyor 3. Stockpile 4. Feed 5. Primary cyclone 6. SAG mill 7. Ball mill 8. Secondary cyclone 9 - 19 are chem. proc.

Grinding Mechanisms

Impact or Compress

Chipping

Abrasion

These mechanisms distort the particles and change their shape beyond certain limits determined by their degree of elasticity, which causes them to break.

Tumbling Mills
In tumbling mills, grinding is influenced by the size, quantity, the type of motion and space between the pieces of ores and medium in the mill. It is a random process. The degree of grinding depends on 1) The probability of ore entering a zone between the medium shapes 2) The probability of some occurrence taking place after entry

The Motion of Charge in Tumbling Mills

The Motion of Charge in Tumbling Mills

Surging

Cascading

Cataracting

Centrifuging

Centrifuging in Tumbling Mills

In practice, centrifuging occurs and the medium is carried around in an essentially fixed position against the shell. mg = mv2 R Radius of shell R-r r- radius of medium v = 2 (R-r) N N Critical speed N = 1 g 1/2 (min. required for centrifuging) 2 R-r V-linear velocity R>>r : N = 54.2/R1/2 Critical Speed = The speed at which medium cataract down the toe instead of following a circular path At critical speed, the mill behave like centrifuge.

Centrifuging in Tumbling Mills

Mills are driven, in practice, at speeds of 50-90% of critical speed, the choice being influenced by economic considerations. Increase in speed increases capacity, but there is little increase in efficiency above about 40-50% of the critical speed.

Construction of Mill

Mill Shell Liners

Mill liners are a major cost in mill operation. It is very important to prolong the life of liners

Mill End
Grate / Pulp lifter / Discharge trunnion / Discharge cone

Various Section of Mills

Conventional Designs of Pulp Lifter

Rod Mills
Fine crusher or coarse grinding machine Capable of reducing 50 mm to 300 m Reduction ratio 15:1 to 20:1

The length of cylindrical shell is between 1.5 and 2.5 times its diameter (to prevent the rods become wedged across the diameter). The rod > 6m will bend, so the length of mill is limited at 6.4 m. The diameter should not be over 4.57 m.

Rod Mills
Rod mills are rated by power (rather than capacity) which can be estimated by Bonds equation: W = Wi 10 - 10 Rod mills are classified by the nature of discharge: - Centre peripheral discharge mill - End peripheral discharge mill - Overflow mill

Centre Peripheral Discharge Mill

End Peripheral Discharge Mill

Overflow Mill

Rod Mills
Rod consumption varies widely with the characteristics of the mill feed, mill speed, rod length, and product size; it is normally in the range 0.1-1.0 kg of steel per tonne of ore for wet grinding. Optimum grinding rates are obtained with new rods when the volume is 35% of that of the shell. This reduces to 20-30% with wear and is maintained at this figure by substitution of new rods for worn ones.

Rod Mills

The grinding action results from line contact of the rods on the ore particles; the rods tumble in essentially a parallel alignment, and also spin, thus acting rather like a series of crushing rolls. This increases the tendency for grinding to take place preferentially on the larger particles, thereby producing a minimum amount of extremely fine material.

Factors on Efficiency of Rod Mill

Pulp density should be maintain at 65 85 % to reduce metal to metal contact Grinding surface area - medium charge with rods of different diameters (25 - 150 mm) to maximize the area. A charge with smaller rods also increase the area. Rods should be made of high carbon steel Mill charge volume should be maintained at 45% of volume (The optimum grind with new rods 35%)

Rod Mills
This selective grinding gives a product of relatively narrow size range, with little oversize or slimes. Rod mills are therefore suitable for preparation of feed to gravity concentrators, certain flotation processes with slime problems, magnetic cobbing, and ball mills. They are nearly always run in open circuit because of this controlled size reduction.

Ball Mills
The final stage in comminution are performed in ball mill. Balls have a greater surface area per unit weight than rods better for fine grinding. Length to diameter ratio (L/D) is 1.5 to 1 and less. If L/D is 3-5, called tube mill or pebble mill. The grinding mediums are pebble or flints. It is widely used in ceramic raw material. It runs with 75-85% of critical velocity.

Ball Mills
Since the weight of pebbles is less than steel balls, the power input and capacity of pebble mills are correspondingly lower. In a grinding circuit, a pebble mill would be much larger than a ball mill, with correspondingly higher operating cost. The higher operating cost can partially offset by the lower cost of the grinding medium and energy cost per tonne of finished product.

Mechanism of Grinding in Ball Mill

Random impact crushing of ore particles Balls impact on ore particles at the toe Due to the random grinding, the product would have wide distribution of size. The problem of over-grinding often occurs. Ball mill is generally controlled in a closedcircuit grinding with short resident time, in order to control over-grinding.

Ball Mills Type

- It is fitted with discharge grates between the cylindrical mill body and the discharge trunnion. - It has lower pulp level than overflow mills. - Very little over-grinding takes place and the product contain a large fraction of coarse material.

Ball Mills Type

- Simple trunnion overflow mills - Most widely used, especially for find grinding and regrinding. - Less energy consumption (15%) than grate discharge mill

Ball Mills
Ball mills are rated by power rather than capacity. Today the largest ball mill in operation is 7.3 m in diameter with a corresponding motor power of more than 11 MW. Grinding in a ball mill is effected by point contact of balls and ore particles and, given time, any degree of fineness can be achieved. The process is completely random- the probability of a fine particle being struck by a ball is the same as that of a coarse particle.

Factors on Efficiency of Ball Mills

The pulp density : should be as high as possible to ease the flow through the mill The balls must be coated with a layer of ore. (To avoid metal to metal contact the wear of steel balls) Ball mill should operate between 65 80% solid by weight. Viscosity ( fineness of ore) can lower pulp density of fine grinding.

Factors on Efficiency of Ball Mills

Surface area of medium (balls) High surface area for fine grinding Charge volume should be maintained at 40 50 % of mill volume Mill speed should be run 70 80% of critical speed (to achieve the cataracting of medium)

Variables for Optimization Ball Mill

Autogenous Mills
An AG mill is a tumbling mill that utilizes the ore itself as grinding media. The ore must contain sufficient competent pieces to act as grinding media. An SAG mill is an autogenous mill that utilizes steel balls in addition to the natural grinding media. The ball charges used in SAG have generally been most effective in the range of 4-15% of the mill volume (including voids).

Autogenous Mills
The length to diameter ratio is around 5. It runs with 80 85 % of critical velocity. It can reduce the ore size of 25 cm to 0.1 mm. AG Mills are widely used with iron ores, while SAG are preferable with non-ferrous ores. AG and SAG are classified by the aspect ratio of diameter to length.

AG/SAG Mills
The main advantages: - Lower capital cost - Wide range of ore (sticky, clay) - Simple flowsheet - Low manpower - Reduce grinding media expense

SAG Mill

Energy Consumed in Tumbling Mills

Energy Input VS Charge Volume

Vibratory Mills
It is designed for continuous or batch grinding to give a very fine end product from a wide variety of materials It can be performed either wet or dry. Two tubes functioning as vibrating grinding cylinders are located one above the other in a plane inclined at 30 to the perpendicular. Between them lies an eccentrically supported weight connected by a flexible universal joint to a 1000 -1500 rev/min.

Vibratory Mills
Rotation of the eccentric vibrates the tubes to produce an oscillation circle of a few mms. The cylinders are filled to about 60 -70% with grinding medium, usually steel balls of diameter 10 50 mm. The material being ground passes longitudinally through the cylinders like a fluid, in a complex spinning helix, thus allowing the grinding medium to reduce it by attrition. The material is fed and discharged through flexible bellow-type hoses.

Vibratory Mills

Tower Mills
In Tower mills, the motion is imparted to the charge by the movement of an internal stirrer while the shells are stationary. It is an alternative for fine and ultra-fine grinding. The feed enters at the top, with mill water, and is reduced in size by attrition and abrasion as it falls, the finely ground particles being carried upwards by pumped liquid and overflowing to a classifier. Oversize particles are returned to the bottom of the chamber and classified by hydrocyclone, which return underflow to the mill sump for further grinding.

Tower Mills
Advantages: - Small installation area - Low noise - Efficient energy usage - Minimal overgrinding - Low capital and operating cost
- Product size can be 1 100 m - Capacity up to 100 t/h - Widely used with limestone, silica, rock salt, coal and copper

Stirred Mills
Despite the manufacturers claim that tower mills can achieve a product size of 1 m, they are generally used at the coarse end of the fine grinding spectrum due to the use of coarse media (around 6 mm), and operation of their stirrer at a relatively slow velocity (less than 3 m/s tip speed). Finer grinding is normally achieved with stirred mills. It employs stirrers comprising a shaft with pins or disks.

Stirred Mills
It can be classified by their shell orientation: - Sala Agitate Mill (SAM) : vertical - IsaMill : horizontal IsaMill is widely used for before flotation or ore leaching due to the high efficiency in sharp cut of ore by g-forces. The worlds largest ultra-fine grinding mill is 8 MW M 50000 IsaMill in Anglos Platinum, South Africa.

IsaMill

Advantages of IsaMill
- Energy efficiency - Improved recovery - High intensity - Open circuit configuration - Simplicity in maintenance - Large scale - Horizontal layout - Low installation cost - Accurate scale up

Roller Mill
It is often used for dry grinding of medium soft materials of up to 4-5 mohs hardness. It can reduce the ore of 2 inches to 400 # The grinding is a result from movement of the roller and the pneumetic transport of fine to air separator (size classification). It is widely used in coal, gypsum, barite and clinker.

Roller Mill

Grinding Circuits
Wet or dry feed ?

Advantages of wet grinding: - It consumes lower power per tonne of product. - It has higher capacity per unit mill volume. - It makes possible the use of wet screening or classification for close product control. - It eliminates the dust problem. - It makes possible the use of simple handling and transport methods such as pumps, pipes, and launders.

Grinding Circuits

Single-stage open circuit : Rod mill

Simple closed-grinding circuit : Ball mill

Grinding Circuits

2 Stages grinding circuit

2 Stages grinding circuit: rod mill and ball mill