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Milling curves as a tool for characterising SAG mill performance

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 I-217
SAG
2006
DEPARTMENT OF MINING ENGINEERING
UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Vancouver, B. C., Canada
MILLING CURVES AS A TOOL FOR CHARACTERISING SAG MILL
PERFORMANCE
André P. van der Westhuizen and Malcolm S. Powell
Mineral Processing Research Unit, University of Cape Town,
Rondebosch, 7700, South Africa, andre@chemeng.uct.ac.za
ABSTRACT
SAG mill performance is sensitive to mill filling which influences the
throughput capacity, power draw, and product grind from the circuit.
Each of these performance parameters peak at different filling values
and it is valuable to determine these, to guide mill operation in terms of
optimal throughput and grind objectives. Establishing curves of power,
throughput, and grind as a function of mill filling has become standard
practice in commercial and research work of this research unit. An
investigation of these 'milling curves' on a 26x16ft (DxL) SAG mill
operated at speeds of 60% to 75% of critical speed and fillings between
20% and 45% is presented.
INTRODUCTION
SAG mills are simple and very effective grinding devices. Their
operation, control, and modelling however poses some challenges to the
operator and researcher alike. For a given design of mill receiving a
given ore type, their performance in terms of throughput and grind is
dramatically influenced by, mill speed, ball size, feed size, ball filling, and
mill filling (Morrell et al, 1996; Morrell, 2004, Powell et al, 2001).
Different to ball mills with constant fillings consisting mainly of balls, the
fillings in SAG mills, consisting mainly of ore charge, can vary
significantly during operation. The two main performance indicators of
any milling operation are the throughput rate and the fineness of product
I-218
grind. An additional parameter that is normally readily available and is
related to SAG mill performance and control is the power draw of the
mill. Much attention has been given to predicting the power draw of the
mill (Morrell, 1996a, Morrell, 1996b, Morrell, 2004). Predicting
throughput and grind quantitatively is not easy and is normally
attempted by the use of simulation packages such as JKSimMet, which
takes into account ore properties and operational variables. The
accuracy of these predictions are however normally limited for different
mill fillings.
SAG mill performance is very sensitive to mill filling. As the autogenous
filling forms part of the grinding media in addition to the ball filling,
changes in the filling will lead to very different performance of a SAG
mill. Maintaining a constant filling in the mill is therefore often the
objective of many SAG mill control systems. The difficulty in controlling
the SAG filling through feedrate is that these two variables are counter
related. Feedrate, and feed properties, will affect SAG filling, whilst
changing the SAG filling also affects the possible throughput. Despite
the overwhelming influence of mill filling on SAG mill performance it is
not normally well characterised for most production mills and also not
easily predicted using simulation packages.
It is the aim of this paper to present an investigation of milling curves as
a function of SAG filling. The milling curves comprise a throughput
curve, power curve, and grind curve as a function of mill filling. It is
believed that these type of curves
• can be used to determine the optimum filling for the operations
grind and throughput requirements
• can be used by the mill operator or control system to
determine stable regions and how to move between fillings
• can be done for different ore types to guide operation.
MILL FILLING AND LOAD
As already discussed, SAG mill filling is a critical parameter for SAG mill
performance. Yet, no percentage mill filling indications are present in
plant control rooms. Normally only a mill load reading is displayed.
These mill load indicators are obtained from load cells under the feed or
discharge ends of the mill or from bearing pressures. During mill survey
work, it is normally one of the first objectives to find a relation between
mill load and mill filling. After at least 3 mill stops and mill filling
measurements, a relation between mill filling and mill load can be
obtained. Two such filling-load curves are shown in Figure 1, which
were both obtained on the South Deep SAG mill, but 8 months apart.
Curve 1 was obtained for newly installed lifters and curve 2 was
 I-219 I-220

obtained for fully worn lifters. The solid upper parts of the curves are the If bearing pressures are used as load indication it seems not to give a
‘normal’ filling-load curves, which are applicable during operation as the straight line relation (Powell and Mainza, 2006) and a slightly different
mill fills up with ore or grinds down. The lower limits of the normal filling- approach would be necessary. The gradient of the line (m) relates a
load curve is determined by doing a grind-out during which the feed to change in filling and therefore volume to a change in mass. Bulk
the mill is stopped and the mill is operated until only the ball charge density is mass over volume and therefore the gradient should be
remain. This should be done carefully to prevent damage to the liners. related to the inverse of the bulk density of the ore charge (ρb, ore) and
The broken lower parts of the curves show the filling-load relationship if the volume of the mill (Vmill). This bulk density should exclude the steel
the balls were to be removed after grinding out. charge as only the ore grinds out or fills up as the filling varies.
50 Therefore,
Gradient: m = 1 / ( ρb,ore . Vmill ) (2)
Change in liner
45
2 & ball fill m ass
The bulk density of the ore charge can be calculated from the rock
40 density, the voidage, and the slurry density filling the voidage.
y = 0.2139x - 0.0579
1 Bulk density: ρb,ore = (1 – φ) . ρore + φ . ρslurry (3)
35
Assuming a voidage (φ) of 40%, using the ore density of 2.7 t/m3, and
Mill Filling, %

30
Change in Fill if calculating a slurry density (ρslurry) of 1.9 t/m3 (75% solids), the bulk ore
25 run at const load charge density (ρb,ore) can be calculated as 2.38 t/m3.
y = 0.183x - 9.0125
20 Therefore, using the mill volume of 208 m3 (D = 7.8m; L = 4.35m), m
Grinding out
(rem ove ore charge)
can be calculated using Eqn. (2) as m = 0.20. Thus eqn (1) becomes,
15 Filling: J = 0.20.Mlc + c. (4)
10
Ball filling ~ 8-9% This approach of calculating the gradient of the line from the mill volume
5 and the charge bulk density seems to be validated by the fact that this
Rem oving ball charge calculated gradient is very close to the average gradient of curves (1)
0 and (2) in Figure 1 that were determined experimentally. Eqn (2) can
-50 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 also be used to estimate the slope of the load-filling curve below the ball
Change in filling, by using volume of the mill, the bulk density of the ball charge,
liner m ass
Load Cells Reading, t and excluding slurry from the voidage. This gave a slope of the line
below the grind-out point of 0.10.
Mar'06; 9.1% ball; Fully worn lifters Jul'05; 7.9% ball; New lifters
The constant, c, in Eqn. 1 is more challenging to predict. It is related to
Figure 1 Filling as function of load cell readings for new and fully the displacement of the curve due to longer-term changes in the mill
worn lifters and slightly different ball fillings load. These changes are related to liner and lifter wear and also due to
changes in ball filling. In practice the value of c can be be obtained
from one mill stop and measuring the filling and indicated load before
Because only a mill load reading is normally displayed in control rooms a the stop. This can be substituted into Eqn. 1 and solved for c. It is
tendency seems to develop amongst operators to run the mill at a certain therefore recommended that plants develop filling load curves and
load indication even over the life of the liners and lifters. The error in this update their position by doing 1 or 2 filling measurements every month.
approach can clearly be seen from Figure 1. Power can also be an In future, these curves can also be updated on-line by maintaining a
additional check on filling, but power can also change due to changing constant ball filling and modelling the liner wear over time. In separate
ball filling. It would therefore be of great benefit to mill operation if this work being conducted by this group (Chandramohan and Powell, 2006),
filling-load relationship can be continuously updated. It can be seen that the monitoring of height loss and building the wear rate and associated
the filling (J) can be fitted as a straight line to load cell readings (Mlc), mass loss into the mill control system, is being pursued.
Filling: J = m.Mlc + c. (1)
 I-221 I-222

EFFECT OF SAG MILL FILLING AND SPEED
In this work, the South Deep SAG mill was stabilised at a range of fillings
varying between 20% and 45% of total mill volume. This was done for
mill speeds varying between 60% and 75% of critical mill speed. Higher
mill speeds were not tested due to the possibility of liner damage from
direct impact of balls at the lower fillings. Some specifications of the mill
are listed in Table 1. For each condition, the mill load was stabilised by
changing the ederate. Stable ederates and quick response times
from the feeders and controllers are essential for stability to be obtained
and maintained effectively. After at least 30 minutes of stable operation,
a sample of the SAG discharge was taken. This sample consisted of 2
or 3 increments taken over 5 to 10 minutes. The average power draw
and ederate is determined for the same period. By using the mill filling
versus mill load relationship as developed in the previous section the mill
loads were converted to mill fillings. These powers, ederates, and
grinds can then be plotted against mill filling for the different mill speeds.
Due to the large number of conditions tested, the tests were conducted
over a couple of days and in order to make the results comparable a
consistent RoM feed in terms of size distribution and hardness was
important. For a fixed speed mill with only one speed to be tested, it can
most probably be done within one day.
Table 1 Specifications of the South Deep SAG Mill
Diameter (int), m 7.80 Cone angle, o 15.0 Open Area, % 7.3
peak normally occurs at fillings around 45-50% of mill volume. For each
of the tested mill speeds, the power draws obtained in the South Deep
SAG mill for different fillings are plotted in Figure 2. As also done by
Morrell (1996b) and others, a second order polynomial passing through
the origin can be fitted to describe the relation between power and mill
filling. It can be seen from Figure 2 that the power draw increases with
increased mill filling, reaches a maximum and then drops off. As
expected, it can be seen that power draw is higher for higher mill
speeds. The curves at higher mill speeds also seem to be somewhat
steeper with more pronounced peaks that can be extrapolated to occur
at very high fillings but moving to lower fillings as speed is increased.
This means a narrower filling window of effective high power operation
at high speeds of 75% critical and above, becoming less effective
especially for higher mill fillings of above 40%. Therefore, for higher
filling operation of around 40% as sometimes required for finer grinding,
a lower speed towards 70% critical might be more beneficial.
5000 kW, 75crit kW, 70crit kW, 65crit
kW, 60crit kW, 75%, Morrel kW, 60%, Morrel
4500
4000
3500

Power, kW
Length (belly), m 4.35 Trun Diam (D), m 1.54 Ball size, mm 100
3000
Using Morrell
SAG Power as Effected by Filling for Different Speeds 2500 Power Predictor
The power draw is most probably the best investigated and modelled (S Morrell, 2004)
parameter of SAG mill performance. Much work was done by Morrell 2000
(Morrell, 1996a, Morrell, 1996b, Morrell, 2004) to model the power draw
accurately. In this approach power draw is modelled as the rate at which 1500
potential and kinetic energy is imparted to the charge in the mill.
Increasing the mill speed increases the imparted kinetic energy and also 1000
the potential energy (higher shoulder) and therefore higher power draws 10 20 30 40 50
are expected with increased mill speed. Increasing the filling renders Mill Filling, %
more charge to adsorb the available energy from the mill and therefore
higher power draw is expected with increased filling. However, at very Figure 2 Power as a function of Filling for different mill speeds
high fillings the shift of the centre of mass of the charge towards the
centre of the mill begins to outweigh the increased mass, and the mill
torque begins to reduce, Govender and Powell (2006). At the same Power draw predictions were also obtained using the SAG mill power
time, the additional charge at high fillings lifts the toe and therefore model from Morrell as partially given in Morrell (2004). As can be seen
reduces the potential energy imparted to the charge. This causes the from the 75% critical prediction, the Morrell model shows very accurate
power draw to drop off at very high fillings. This leaves the power draw power predictions for the 'normal' operating regime of between 25% and
to peak at some filling and as observed by Powell et al. (2004) this power 40% filling. Extrapolating the experimental data to above 40% filling is
somewhat uncertain.

It seems as if power peak for the 75% critical mill speed occurs at a
lower filling than that predicted. Yet overall a very good prediction was
obtained at 75% critical speed. In contrast it is clear that the model did
not predict the power draw of this mill very well when operating at a very
low speed of 60% critical. In this case, it seems that the slope of the
curve rather than the exact position of the peak is the problem.
Considering the slope, it does not seem that the predicted curve is
tending to pass through the origin as is commonly assumed.
The power peaks obtained in this work are plotted in Figure 3 and is also
summarised in Table 2 at the end of this paper. It is clear that with
increased mill speed, the fillings at which the power peaked in the South
Deep mill dropped off sharply with mill speed, whilst the power draws at
these increased speeds increased sharply. It can be noted from Figure 3
that some of the peaks lie above 50% filling as they were extrapolated
from the fitted curves. These peaks should therefore be treated with
some caution. The fillings at which Morrell (1996b) found power peaks
are also plotted and it can be seen that power peak fillings dropped off
much quicker to lower fillings in this mill than that found by Morrell at
higher speeds. This is thus the reason why the Morrell power model
might overpredict the power draw for this mill slightly for high fillings of
40% and more when running at a high speed of 75% critical and above.
60
Power Peak, % Filling
50
40
30
Fill, S Deep '06
20 Fill, S Morrel, 1996b
Power, S Deep '06
10
50 60 70 80 90
Mill % Critical Speed
Figure 3 Power peaks (filling and kW) as a function of mill speed
SAG Throughput as Affected by Filling for Different Speeds
Compared to power draw, it is normally much more difficult to predict
quantitatively how the SAG throughput will be affected by changed filling.
It is known that SAG throughput will increase with filling at very low
fillings, reach a maximum and then decrease at higher fillings. It has
been observed that this throughput peak normally occurs at lower fillings
I-223 I-224
(20 – 40% filling) than the power peak (45-50% filling) as given in
Powell et al. (2004). The throughput through the mill is determined
either by the rate of breakage of the coarser material to sizes below the
discharge grate size or by slurry transport and discharge limitations.
Assuming no discharge limitations, the throughput through the mill is
determined by the rate of breakage (t/hr) of the coarser size fractions to
sizes below the grate size.
The effect of mill load on the breakage rate constant (1/hr), commonly
referred to only as 'breakage rate', is predicted in Morrell (2004). It
predicts that the breakage rate constant (1/hr) of the coarser sizes (>
~10mm) decreases with increased filling. The coarse material is mainly
broken by impact breakage, which reduces due to the decreased drop
height from shoulder to toe as the mill filling increases and therefore
decreasing the breakage rate constant. The mass breakage rate (t/hr)
however is the product of the breakage rate constant (1/hr) and the
mass content of coarse material (t) in the mill. For most variables, the
effect on the breakage rate constant is analogous to the effect on the
mass breakage rate if the mill contents mass remain constant.
However for mill filling even though the breakage rate constant for the
coarser sizes decreases at increasing filling, the available mass of
coarse material increases and the product of the two, mass breakage
rate (t/hr), is what determines mill throughput. Therefore, it seems that
4100
at lower fillings the breakage rate constant of the coarser sizes
decreases slower than the coarse mill content increases, causing the
4000
throughput to increase with increased filling. However, at high fillings
Power Peak, kW
the breakage rate constant decreases faster than the coarse mill
3900 content increases, causing the throughput to decrease with increased
mill filling. This then leaves a throughput peak somewhere between
3800 these opposing effects.
3700 For the South Deep mill, the feedrate through the mill was noted at each
of the tested mill speed and filling conditions as shown in Figure 4. At
3600 each mill speed, the throughput increases with filling, reaches a peak
and drops off. Slurry pooling was never observed in the South Deep
mill and it is therefore expected that the throughput trends observed
here are purely due to breakage and not slurry transport and discharge
limitations. It is clear that mill speed has a dramatic influence on SAG
throughput with higher speeds giving substantially higher throughputs
over the 'normal' filling range (20-40%). Especially, the large increases
in throughput with increasing the mill speed over the 65% to 75% critical
speed ranges are noticeable. It can be seen that dropping below 65%
has a smaller effect on throughput and it is also expected that the large
increases with increasing mill speed will also taper off as the mill speed
increases above 75% critical. For throughput it was found that 3rd order
polynomials fitted the experimental observations well.

500 Tph, 75crit
Tph, 70crit Tph, 65crit
450
400
350
Feedrate, tph
300
250
200
150
100
10 20 30 40
Filling, %
Figure 4 Throughput as a function of filling for different mill speeds
It follows from Figure 4 that the throughput peaks shifts to higher fillings
(to the right) as the mill speed is increased. This is opposite to what was
observed with the power peaks in the previous section, where they
shifted to lower fillings as mill speed increased. This means that the
throughput peaks and power peaks move closer together with increased
mill speed. As was also observed for the power peaks, the throughput
curves seem to become steeper with more pronounced peaks as the mill
speed increases. This makes effective mill control at higher speeds
more challenging, due to the larger effect that a small change in load will
have in the throughput capacity of the mill.
The throughput peaks of the fitted curves are plotted versus mill speed in
Figure 5 (next page). Table 2 at the end of this paper is a summary. As
already mentioned it can be seen how the throughput peaks shifts to
higher fillings as the mill speed increases. The throughput at each peak
also increases dramatically over the 65-75% critical speed range.
SAG Fineness of Grind as Effected by Filling For Different Speeds
Fineness of grind at different fillings and speed is perhaps even more
difficult to predict quantitatively than throughput at different fillings and
mill speeds. A general rule of thumb that is often used to predict how the
grind would be affected is that the grind will follow the power curve or put
otherwise that the grind becomes finer as the filling is increased.
I-225 I-226
60 500
Tph, 60crit
Throughput Peak, % Fill
Throughput Peak, Tph
50 400
40 300
30 200
20 % Fill 100
Tph
10 0
50 60 70 80 90
Mill % Critical Speed
Figure 5 Throughput peaks (filling & tph) as a function of speed
50 Where throughput was largely influenced by the coarse breakage rate
constants (1/hr) and the coarse content of the mill (t), fineness of grind
is mainly influenced by the fines (<~1mm) breakage rate constants
(1/hr) and the slurry content of the mill. In this regard, Morrell (2004)
predicted that the breakage rate constants (1/hr) for fines will increase
with increased filling. It is also expected that the slurry solids content (t)
of the mill should increase with increased filling. Using the mass
breakage rate of fines (t/hr) would therefore predict that grind would
always be increasingly fine at higher fillings.
The samples that were taken during the surveys were screened and the
% passing 150μm were determined as an indicator of the fineness of
grind from the SAG mill. The results are given in Figure 6 (see next
page). It is immediately noticeable that where higher mill speeds gave
the highest power draw and highest throughput, higher mill speeds are
giving the coarsest grind. Dropping the mill speed from 75% critical to
70% and 65% critical, great improvements in grind are observed,
inadvertently at the expense of throughput as seen in the previous
section. It is also noticeable that where the power and grind curves
became steeper at higher speeds, Figure 6 seems to suggest that the
fineness of grind reduces and becomes less influenced by mill filling
(curves are flatter). Fineness of grind is expected to increase if the
power increases and thethroughput drops, as what happens at high
fillings. Therefore, the bigger the divergence between the power and
throughput curves at high fillings, the finer the grind is expected to
become. The milling performance curves will be plotted together in the
next section where it will be seen that the divergence between the
throughput and power curves over the 25 to 40% filling region increases
at lower mill speeds and therefore the finer grind.
 I-227 I-228

From the 2nd order polynomials fitted,the grind curve peaks can be 260
derived and it can be seen that as mill speed is increased the grind
peaks occur at coarser grinds and at lower % fillings shown in Figure 7. 75crit
240
70crit

Tph -150um in Discharge, tph

100
220 65crit
%-150, 75crit %-150, 70crit
90 %-150, 65crit %-150, 60crit 200 60crit

80
Grind, %-150um

180

70 160

60 140

120
50
100
40 10 20 30 40 50
10 20 30 40 50
Mill Filling, %
Mill Filling, %
Figure 8 Production rate of -150um material as a function of filling
for different mill speeds
Figure 6 Grind as a function of filling for different mill speeds
60 100 These suggest that even though the grind at 75% critical is the lowest,
the mill still has the highest production of fines at this speed. The
Grind Peaks, % Fill

Grind Peaks, % -

50 80 production rate of fines at 70% critical is slightly lower but still

comparable to 75% critical. It can also be seen that although 65% and
150um

40 60 60% critical had by far the best grinds their production rate of fines are
way down due to the much lower throughputs at those mill speeds.
30 % Fill 40 Therefore, if the SAG mill is run together with a secondary ball mill with
% -150um excess capacity, it can be run at high speeds for best throughput and
20 20 fines production rates. However, if grind problems are experienced and
the secondary mill is running optimally it can be considered to drop the
50 60 70 80 90
SAG speed slightly at some expense of throughput. If throughput is not
Mill % Critical Speed a priority and grind is of utmost importance the SAG speed can be
dropped to 65% critical.
Figure 7 Grind peaks as a function of mill speed
SAG MILL PERFORMANCE VERSUS FILLING – MILLING CURVES
Considering the above findings might suggest that for better grind the In this section, the curves that were obtained separately for SAG power,
SAG mill must be run at slower speed. However, due to the coincident throughput, and grind will now be plotted together versus SAG filling, to
drop in throughput, it does not necessarily mean that the SAG is a better obtain the standard milling performance curves commonly used within
producer of fines at lower speeds. Therefore, if the production rate of this research group. These are given for 65%, 70% and 75% critical as
fines in the SAG is considered (tph -150 μm) versus mill filling and examples of milling curves for low, medium, and high SAG mill speeds.
speed, the curves as given in Figure 8 (next page) are obtained. At low mill speeds (65%), the throughput curve is relatively flat with the
 I-229 I-230

peak occurring at very low fillings. The power draw and grind increases 5000 100
steadily as the filling is increased. At medium mill speeds (70%), the 65% crit

Power, kW & Feed x 10, tph

4500 90
power and throughput curves become slightly more pronounced with the
throughput peak occurring at fillings around 30%, the power peak Is 4000 80

Grind, % -150um
above normal operation filling. The grind seems to become flatter than 3500 70
at the lower speed and now has a peak that lies somewhere between the
3000 60
throughput and power peaks. This milling curve that was obtained for
70% critical mill speed, agrees best with other milling curves previously 2500 50
obtained within this group (Powell and Mainza, 2006). At high mill 2000 40
speeds the throughput and power curves becomes steeper, with their 1500 30
more pronounced peaks moving closer together. The grind curve seems 23.3
to become relatively flat at high mill speeds. This is due to the 1000 20
throughput and power peaks following a very similar trend in the 25-40% 10 20 30 40 50
filling range and not diverging as much as at the lower speeds. Figure 5000 M ill F illing, % 100
70% crit
10 would be very useful to for planning purposes and for the operator

Power, kW & Feed x 10, tph

4500 G rind, 65c rit Throughput, 65c rit P ow er, 65c
90 rit
running the mill. However these curves can be combined into a
4000 80
performance surface which a control system can use to optimize mill

Grind, % -150um
performance as shown in Figure 9. 3500 70

3000 60
2500 50
2000 40

1500 30
30.7 36.8 47.3
45 1000 20
10 20 30 40 50
40
Mill milling, % volume

5000 M ill F illing, % 100

75% crit

Power, kW & Feed x 10, tph

35 4500 G rind, 70c rit Throughput, 70c rit P ow er, 70c
90 rit
70% 75% crit
60% 65%
4000 80

Grind, % -150um
30
3500 70

25 3000 60
2500 50
20 Tph incr w. Spd
100 Grind coarsens 2000 40
w. Spd
80 500 1500 30
400 33.4 34.6 39.3
60 300 1000 20
% passing 150um
200 10 20 30 40 50
40 100 Throughput, tph
M ill F illing, %
G rind Throughput P ower
Figure 9 Mill performance as a function of filling and speed
Figure 10 SAG mill performance curves for the South Deep mill
running at 60, 70 & 75% critical speed
 I-231 I-232
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Table 2 Summary of Performance Peaks the SAG mill is not followed by a secondary mill. If throughput is not a
concern and a fine grind is of utmost importance, it can be considered
Mill Speed Power Peak Throughput Peak Grind Peak to run the SAG mill at very low speeds of around 65% critical.
J kW J TPH J %-150um
75 39 4037 35 424 33 56 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
70 47 4028 31 326 37 69 The generous support and cooperation of the South Deep Gold Plant
65 55 3931 23 252 58 94 management is gratefully acknowledged. Support from plant manager,
60 54 3603 18 261 63 100 Stephen Joseph, the senior metallurgist, Ismail Kola, and the milling
Font indicates peaks that are extrapolated to above 50% filling section production supervisor, Dries Coetzee, is specifically mentioned.
The long hours of our research staff, Jason Waters, Michael Bekapi,
CONCLUSIONS Lawrence Bbosa, and Percy Condori, is gratefully acknowledged.
SAG mill performance is very sensitive to SAG mill filling and often not REFERENCES
well characterized for most production mills. Converting from mill load to
mill filling is central in this regard and a technique is presented to obtain Chandramohan, R and Powell, M.S., 2006. A structured approach to
this relation. This curve shifts with time due to liner wear and should be modelling SAG mill liner wear – monitoring wear. Proceedings
calibrated by monthly filling measurements, which can be supplemented International autogenous and semiautogenous grinding
by wear prediction modelling. technology 2006, Sep. 24-27, Ed. Mular et al, Published CIM.
Govender, I, Powell, M.S., 2006. Validation of DEM using an empirical
Power draw was found to increase with both mill speed and mill filling up power model derived from 3D particle tracking experiments. Minerals
to a peak. The power peak moved to lower fillings as speed increased. Engineering, Special issue – computation 05.
Using the Morrell power prediction, a good agreement was achieved at Morrell, S., 1996, “Power draw of wet tumbling mills and its relationship
75% critical. At low mill speeds (60% critical), large differences are to charge dynamics - Part 1: a continuum approach to mathematical
observed between the Morrell prediction and measured power. modelling of mill power draw”, Trans. Instn. Min. Metall. (Sect C), Vol.
105, Jan-Apr, pp. C43-C53.
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Morrell, S., 1996, “Power draw of wet tumbling mills and its relationship
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increases with increasing mill speed. The slope of the throughput curve
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becomes steeper with a more pronounced peak at high mill speeds,
which indicates that stable mill control will become more difficult at high Morrell, S., 2004, “A new autogeneous and semi-autogeneous mill
mill speeds due to the increased interaction between feedrate and mill model for scale-up, design, and optimisation”, Minerals Engineering,
filling. With the throughput peak increasing with mill speed and the Vol. 17, pp. 437-445.
power peak dropping with mill speed it seems to indicate a narrower Morrell, S., Finch, W.M., Kojovic, T. and Delboni, H. Jr., 1996,
filling window of effective mill operation at higher speeds. “Modelling and simulation of large diameter autogeneous and semi-
autogeneous mills”, Int. J. Miner. Process., Vol. 44-45, pp. 289-300.
Fineness of grind was found to reduce dramatically with increasing mill Powell, M.S., Morrell, S. and Latchireddi, S., 2001, “Developments in
speed but with dramatic gains in throughput. Balancing these two milling the understanding of South African style SAG mills”, Minerals
objectives depends on the operational requirements of the plant. Even Engineering, Vol. 14, pp. 1143-1153.
though the grind in the SAG discharge was found to coarsen with mill
Powell, M.S. and Mainza, A.N., 2006, "Extended grinding curves are
speed, the production rate of fine material was still found to increase
essential to the comparison of milling performance", In Proceedings
significantly due to the higher total throughput. At a high speed of 75%
Comminution '06, Perth, Australia, March,13pp.
critical the fineness of grind curve was found to be very flat and not
increasing much at higher fillings compared to 70% critical. Therefore at Van der Westhuizen, A.P. and Powell, M.S., 2006, "South Deep milling
high speeds, a slightly lower mill speed might be the best solution to circuit testwork, model fitting, and simulations", Internal report:
grind pressures whilst not loosing too much in production, especially if MPTech-C-05-09 submitted to South Deep Gold Mine, MPTech,
MPRU, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, Feb, pp. 1-80.