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SIZE REDUCTION BY GRINDING METHODS

Technical Report · March 2017

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21484.56961

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A. Balasubramanian
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 SIZE REDUCTION BY GRINDING METHODS

By
Prof. A. Balasubramanian
Centre for Advanced Studies in Earth Science,
University of Mysore, Mysore

Objectives:

In the field of extractive metallurgy, mineral processing is the process of separating commercially
valuable minerals from their ores. Mineral processing involves two major categories of processing.
One is comminution and the other one is separation. The process Comminution involves size
reduction and size-wise classification called as screening/ separation. Milling is one of the most
important industrial processes. The electric power consumption by this process run on ore mining
and processing enterprises is variously estimated as a value from 5 to 20% of overall world electric
power. The objective of this lesson is to provide the details of size reduction methods involved in
mineral processing using grinding methods and equipments.

1.0 Introduction:

Mineral processing can involve four general types of unit operations. They are:
1) comminution – the process of particle size reduction;
2) sizing – separation of particle sizes by screening or classification;
3) concentration by taking advantage of physical and surface chemical properties; and
4) dewatering – solid/liquid separation.

Size Reduction is mainly done through crushers and mills.

Crushing and grinding are the two primary comminution processes.
Crushing is normally carried out on the "run-of-mine" ore.
The grinding process which is normally carried out after crushing, may be conducted on dry or
slurried material.

2.0 The size reduction process:

Minerals being crystals have a tendency to break into endless numbers of sizes and shapes every
time they are introduced to energy. The difficulty in size reduction lays in the art of limiting the
number of over and under sizes produced during the reduction. If this is not controlled, the mineral
will follow its natural crystal behaviour, normally ending up in over-representation of fines.

3.0 Comminution

Comminution is particle size reduction of materials. Comminution may be carried out on either dry
materials or slurries. Crushing and grinding are the two primary comminution processes.
Grinding equipments are used in the minerals & mining industry throughout the world.
In the mining industry, dry grinding plants are primarily used when the downstream preparation
process requires dry material, or in order to save valuable water resources. Grinding is the required
process when size reduction of below 5-20 mm is needed. Grinding is a powdering or pulverizing
process of many kinds of minerals(Barite, Calcite, Limestone, Quartz, Gypsum, etc).

Size control:

Neither crushers nor grinding mills are very precise when it comes to the correct sizing of the end
products. The reason is to find partly in the variation of the mineral crystals compounds (hard-soft,
abrasive – non abrasive), partly in the design and performance of the equipment. Size control is the
tool for improvement of the size fractions in the process stages and in the final products. For the

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coarser part of the process, screens are used (in practise above 1-2 mm). In the finer part we have to
use classification with spiral classifiers.

Grinding Process:

Size reduction by crushing has a size limitation for the final products. If we require further
reduction, say below 5-20 mm, we have to use the processes of grinding.
Grinding is a powdering or pulverizing process using the rock mechanical forces of impaction,
compression, shearing and attrition. The two main purposes for a grinding process are:
• To liberate individual minerals trapped in rock crystals (ores) and thereby open up for a subsequent
enrichment in the form of separation.
• To produce fines (or filler) from mineral fractions by increasing the specific surface.

Grinding methods:

The major grinding methods are carried out by tumbling, stirring and vibrations as shown in the
following illustration:

Grinding mills – Reduction ratios

All crushers including impactors have limited reduction ratios. Due to the design there is a restricting
in retention time for the material passing. In grinding as it takes place in more “open” space, the
retention time is longer and can easily be adjusted during operation.

The types of machines used are:

A mill is a device that breaks solid materials into smaller pieces by grinding, crushing, or cutting.
Such comminution is an important unit operation in many processes. There are many different types
of mills and many types of materials processed in them. Historically mills were powered by hand
(e.g., via a hand crank), working animal (e.g., horse mill), wind (windmill) or water (watermill).
Today they are usually powered by electricity. The popularly used mills are :

Stamp mill ,Crusher , AG mill, SAG mill, Pebble mill, Ball mill , Rod mill.

A stamp mill (or stamp battery or stamping mill) is a type of mill machine that crushes material by
pounding rather than grinding, either for further processing or for extraction of metallic ores.
Breaking material down is a type of unit operation. An Arrastra (or Arastra) is a primitive mill for
grinding and pulverizing (typically) gold or silver ore.

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Size reduction by Grinding

The grinding of solid matters occurs under exposure of mechanical forces that trench the structure by
overcoming of the interior bonding forces. After the grinding the state of the solid is changed: the
grain size, the grain size disposition and the grain shape. Milling also refers to the process of
breaking down, separating, sizing, or classifying aggregate material. For instance rock crushing or
grinding to produce uniform aggregate size for construction purposes, or separation of rock, soil or
aggregate material for the purposes of structural fill or land reclamation activities. Aggregate milling
processes are also used to remove or separate contamination or moisture from aggregate or soil and
to produce "dry fills" prior to transport or structural filling.

Grinding may serve the following purposes in engineering:

• increase of the surface area of a solid, manufacturing of a solid with a desired grain size &
pulping of resources.

Grinding machines:

In materials processing, a grinder is a machine for producing fine particle size reduction through
attrition and compressive forces at the grain size level. In general, grinding processes require a
relatively large amount of energy; for this reason, an experimental method to measure the energy
used locally during milling with different machines was recently proposed.

Hammer- & Hammer Impact Mills:

Hammer- and hammer impact mills are suitable for crushing soft to medium hard materials (degrees
of hardness according to F. Mohs 2 - 5). For example: agglomerates, coal, limestone, gypsum and
slag. They are designed for large through-put volumes and trouble-free operation. Hammer impact
mills are particularly suited very coarse material for whilst attaining a high degree of comminution
with large through-puts. In hammer mills the material is pulled in to the crushing space by the
hammers suspended from the rapid-running rotor. Comminution occurs mainly through impact in the
area of the grid basket. The material being crushed remains in the crushing space until the degree of
fineness required has been achieved, so that it can then pass through the discharge grid.

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Ball mill :

A typical type of fine grinder is the ball mill. It consists of a slightly inclined or horizontal rotating
cylinder is partially filled with balls, usually stone or metal, which grinds material to the necessary
fineness by friction and impact with the tumbling balls. Ball mills normally operate with an
approximate ball charge of 30%. Ball mills are characterized by their smaller (comparatively)
diameter and longer length, and often have a length 1.5 to 2.5 times the diameter.

Ball mills are used primary for single stage fine grinding, regrinding, and as the second stage in two
stage grinding circuits. According to the need of customers, ball mill can be either wet or dry
designs. Ball mills are designed in standard sizes of the final products between 0.074 mm and 0.4
mm in diameter. They are suitable for grinding material with high hardness, the shape of the final
products is circular, no pollution for the powder with ceramic ball, stable performance and the
capacity and fineness can be adjusted by adjusting the diameter of the ball.

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Ball mills are used for wet grinding iron ore, gold/copper ore, nickel ore and other ores, as well as
lime/limestone for flue gas desulphurisation systems, coal and other raw materials.

Rod mill :

A rotating drum causes friction and attrition between steel rods and ore particles.] But note that the
term 'rod mill' is also used as a synonym for a slitting mill, which makes rods of iron or other metal.
Rod mills are less common than ball mills for grinding minerals. The rods used in the mill, usually
a high-carbon steel, can vary in both the length and the diameter. However, the smaller the rods, the
larger is the total surface area and hence, the greater the grinding efficiency. A few of them are
suitable under wet or dry conditions exclusively. This diagram illustrates the operations of rod mills.

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Autogenous mill :

Autogenous or autogenic mills are so-called due to the self-grinding of the ore: a rotating drum
throws larger rocks of ore in a cascading motion which causes impact breakage of larger rocks and
compressive grinding of finer particles. It is similar in operation to a SAG mill as described below
but does not use steel balls in the mill. Also known as ROM or "Run Of Mine" grinding. Grinding is
done under wet or dry conditions. This method is sensitive to feed composition. This is the schematic
diagram of this machine.

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SAG mill:

SAG is an acronym for Semi-Autogenous Grinding. SAG mills are essentially autogenous mills, but
utilize grinding balls to aid in grinding like in a ball mill. A SAG mill is generally used as a primary
or first stage grinding solution. SAG mills use a ball charge of 8 to 21%. The largest SAG mill is
42' in diameter, powered by a 28 MW (38,000 HP) motor.

A SAG mill with a 44' diameter and a power of 35 MW (47,000 HP) has been designed. Grinding is
done under wet or dry conditions. This method is less sensitive to feed composition. This diagram
shows the schematic operations of the SAG mills.

Pebble mill :

A rotating drum causes friction and attrition between rock pebbles and ore particles. May be used
where product contamination by iron from steel balls must be avoided. Quartz or silica is commonly

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used because it is inexpensive to obtain. This diagram shows the schematic operations of a pebble
mill.

High pressure grinding rolls:

The special feeding of bulk material through a hopper leads to a material bed between the two
rollers. The bearing units of one roller can move linearly and are pressed against the material bed by
springs or hydraulic cylinders. The pressures in the material bed are greater than 50 MPa
(7,000 PSI). In general they achieve 100 to 300 MPa. By this the material bed is compacted to a solid
volume portion of more than 80%.

Tower mill :

Tower mills, often called vertical mills, stirred mills or regrind mills, are a more efficient means of
grinding material at smaller particle sizes, and can be used after ball mills in a grinding process. Like
ball mills, grinding (steel) balls or pebbles are often added to stirred mills to help grind ore, however
these mills contain a large screw mounted vertically to lift and grind material. In tower mills, there is
no cascading action as in standard grinding mills. These vertical grinding mills are widely used in
grinding non-flammable and non-explosive materials under 9.3(the Moh's hardness), such as
grinding quartz, feldspar, calcite, talcum, barite, fluorite, iron ore, copper ore quartz, slag, cement
clinker, zircon sand, fly ash and carborundum, coal, etc.

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Special Tumbling Mills:

These are grinding and pulverizing machines consisting of a shell or drum rotating on a horizontal
axis. The material to be reduced in size is fed into one end of the mill. The mill is also charged with
grinding material such as iron balls.

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Grinding by Vibrating Mills:

The vibrating mills are used for grinding of almost all materials concerning processing industry,
from medium-sized lumps up to extra-fine final grains. Twin- and three-tube vibrating mills are
driven by an unbalanced drive. The entire filling of the grinding cylinders, which comprises the
grinding bodies and the material intended for grinding, constantly receives impulses from the
circular vibrations in the body of the mill. The grinding action itself is produced by the rotation of
the grinding bodies in opposite direction towards the driving rotation and by continuous head-on
collisions of the grinding bodies. The residence time of the material being inside the grinding
cylinders is determined by the quantity of the flowing material. The grinding cylinders are filled to
about 60-70 %. Balls, cylpebs and grinding rods are used as grinding bodies. If the grinding is iron-
free, balls or cylpebs of aluminium oxide are used.

Their particular fields of application are coal, chemicals, ceramics and pit and quarry industries,
including their subgroups. The feed materials may be Lignite, hard coal, ash, coke, charcoal,
dolomite, marble, silica sand, limestone, bentonite, lime, gypsum, puzzolan, bauxite, copper
granules, iron oxide, ferrosilicon, magnesium oxide, arsenide, aluminium oxide, silicon carbonate,
zirconium, fireclay, corundum and similar products.

Vibrating mills are suitable for the reduction of all brittle material. Depending on the grinding time
and material, reduction of 20 mm feed material are possible. The attainable ultimate fineness is
approximately 0-5 µm. Vibrating mills are specially suited for combined grinding and mixing, as
well as for mixing, alone.

Batch Processing:

Milling can be performed in a batch or continuous way. Batch process is used on small industrial
scale. Continuous process runs according to two main circuits. Open loop is often used for coarse
and medium crushing. In the case of the open loop the material passes the milling device only once
without repassing it. The best possible product quality level, the lowest power consumption, and the
highest milling equipment output are achieved in closed loop with continuous recovery of the fine

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 fraction. In such a loop the material having oversized particles is returned into the process chamber
for regrinding and the target fraction is withdrawn during the following separation.

Conclusion:

Crushing and Grinding are a must in the Mining Industry. These are very essential stages. The main
purpose is to reduce the size of the ore (rock) particle before subjecting it to reagents (chemical
reactions). Crushing involves reducing the ore size from various sizes ranging from particles as big
as a human body, or just the size of your head or toe to an average 90 to 140mm for primary
crushing or 40 to 55mm for secondary. By adopting secondary crushing that will reduce the size
further to about 40mm or 70mm.

Grinding on the other hand involves reducing the size such that 80% of the material will pass
through a 150micron mess (150µm). Grinding is usually done by mills. Grinding methods are
widely used in the fields of mining, construction materials, electric power, road and bridge building,
coal, metallurgy, chemical, ceramics, fireproof industries and so on. It can be used for grinding
limestone, calcite, talc, barite, quartz, feldspar, iron ores, kaolin, bentonite, coal ash, slag, petroleum
coke and other materials non-flammable and non-explosive mineral ores with Moh's hardness blow
9.3 degree and humidity below 6%.

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