Int. J. Miner. Process.

93 (2009) 59–65

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Int. J. Miner. Process.

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w. e l s ev i e r. c o m / l o c a t e / i j m i n p r o

Grinding of mineral mixtures in high-pressure grinding rolls

Abdel-Zaher M. Abouzeid a,⁎, Douglas W. Fuerstenau b
a
Dept. of Mining, Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
b
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, Ca, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Attempts at improving comminution machines generally have been directed towards increasing the
Received 15 May 2009 performance efficiency, particularly increasing throughput rate and decreasing energy consumption. The
Accepted 23 May 2009 latest and most successful new comminution technology has been the high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR),
Available online 17 June 2009
which have proved to be highly efficient in energy consumption and to have a relatively high throughput rate
at low steel consumption. Already used extensively in cement plants worldwide, the first HPGRs in the
Keywords:
High pressure grinding rolls
mineral industry were installed in plants processing diamond ores. They are now finding their way into the
Comminution large-scale base-metal mining industry. Since feed constituents in natural ores vary in their physical
Grinding of mineral mixtures properties such as hardness, plasticity and brittleness, the present paper is concerned with an investigation
Energy efficiency of grinding of the behavior of a heterogeneous feed as it passes through the HPGR. The effect of feed composition on
Enhanced energy efficiency in comminution operational parameters, the energy efficiency of comminution, and energy distribution among the feed
components is addressed. Mineral particles with high hardness act as energy transfer agents in the roll gap
and enhance the grinding of softer mineral particles in a mixed feed.
© 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction other is of high priority in modeling, optimizing and controlling the

In mineral processing, comminution accounts for a substantial
portion of the energy consumed in the plant, almost 80%. Efforts to
increase comminution efficiency come not only from the need for high
production rates but also because of higher energy costs associated
with the inherent low-efficiency of conventional comminution
systems and the lower grade of ores that have to be milled. In
addition, steel consumption in the form of grinding media and
machine liners is also an energy-intensive item in the comminution of
ores. The rate of steel consumption may go as high as two kg/ton of
ground product for fine grinding of taconite ores. Furthermore, steel
abraded from liners and grinding media can be a harmful contaminant
in some down-stream mineral processing operations. The escalation
of energy costs and the effort to reduce steel consumption has
accelerated interest towards installing high-pressure grinding rolls
(HPGR) in mineral processing plants.
First of all, because an ore is an admixture of two or more minerals
that differ in their chemical and physical properties, variations in the
ore being comminuted can have significant effects. Some constituent
minerals are soft, some are hard, brittle or plastic, or may exhibit
distinct cleavage. In addition, ores from different areas in a mine may
be highly variable, not only due to changing composition but also to
the degree of weathering. For grinding such heterogeneous feed in
large tonnages, understanding of how the different constituents
behave individually and in admixture and how they interact with each
⁎ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: abdel.abouzeid@gmail.com (A.-Z.M. Abouzeid).
comminution operation (Venkataraman and Fuerstenau, 1984). The
circulating load as well as the mill hold-up in complex ore grinding
circuits becomes richer in the harder and/or heavier constituent in the
ore (Venkataraman, 1981; Abouzeid and Fuerstenau, 1985; Abouzeid,
1989; Fuerstenau et al., 1992; Kapur and Fuerstenau, 1989). In a very
practical system, Remenyi (1974) demonstrated that prolonged
grinding of coal results in a fine fraction richer in ash.
Over the years, most of the more fundamental research directed at
understanding comminution mechanisms, estimating energy require-
ments, and formulating phenomenological models has been con-
ducted with single mineral systems. However, investigating the
comminution of mineral mixtures provides a means for quantitatively
assessing the behavior of complex mineral systems. Fairly extensive
studies have been carried out to evaluate the behavior of mineral
mixtures in laboratory tumbling (ball and rod) mills (Kapur and
Fuerstenau, 1988; Gardner and Rogers, 1975; Somasundaran and
Fuerstenau, 1963; Fuerstenau et al., 1984; Abouzeid, 1989), but only
the results of a brief investigation of the grinding of 50:50 mixtures of
quartz and limestone in a laboratory HPGR have been reported (Kapur
et al., 1992).
It is well known that energy utilization in conventional comminu-
tion machines is only a fraction of that required for crushing single
particles under slow compression (Schoenert, 1979). This decrease in
process efficiency can be attributed to the way in which energy is
transferred to the particles and to particle/particle interactions that
are inevitable in comminution machines, in either loose or confined
beds (Kapur et al., 1993; Fuerstenau and Vazquez-Favela, 1997). In ball
mills, energy is transferred to the particles being ground by the

0301-7516/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.minpro.2009.05.008
60 A.-Z.M. Abouzeid, D.W. Fuerstenau / Int. J. Miner. Process. 93 (2009) 59–65
rotating ball charge in an unconfined manner. This leads to losses
through miss hits, non-utilized body friction, etc. On the other hand,
when the particles being comminuted are in a confined bed, as
represented by choke-fed high-pressure grinding rolls, comminution
energy is significantly reduced (Kellerwessel, 1990; Fuerstenau and
Kapur, 1994). This is basically due to the fact that energy in a confined-
bed machine (HPGR) is transferred directly to the particulate mass
flowing between the rolls, and breakage occurs by very high stresses
generated locally at the contact points between the particles in the
highly compressed bed (Kellerwessel, 1990; Fuerstenau and Kapur,
1994; Fuerstenau et al., 1991). As a result, HPGRs function as energy-
saving comminution machines when compared with conventional
tumbling mills (Ellerbrock, 1993; Patzelt, 1990). Starting with the
installation of the first HPGR to grind slag at the Readymix Cement
plant in Germany, HPGRs were installed in cement plants throughout
Germany and extensively in Europe and other parts of the world. A
recent paper by Gens et al. (2008) gives quantitative data on the
benefit of crushing the clinker feed in a HPGR prior to the ball mill. The
circuit capacity was increased by 10%, and the specific energy was
reduced by 9.1%. Furthermore, the critical size fraction (16 × 9.5 mm)
that previously had accumulated in the grinding compartments
[before the pre-crushing step had been introduced] is significantly
reduced.
After the use of HPGRs in the cement industry had become
established, the mining industry began to direct attention to use them
in ore comminution circuits. The first installations were at diamond
mines, followed by some use in the iron ore industry for crushing
pebbles that accumulate in SAG mill circuits (Dicke and Van Der Meer,
2008). In 2006, four 2.4-meter diameter HPGRs were installed in the
new 125,000 t/d mill at Cerro Verde in Peru (Vanderbeek et al., 2006).
Instead of pursuing a traditional SAG mill/ball mill circuit, a crusher/
HPGR/ball mill circuit was installed. Total energy for the HPGR/BM
circuit is 15.9 kWh/ton in comparison with 20.1 kWh/ton for a SAG/
BM circuit. This is the first large-scale HPGR system in the base-metal
mining industry. In their paper about the decision to install a HPGR
circuit at Cerro Verde, Vanderbeek and his coauthors (2006) wrote:
“Since SAG milling is a mature technology limited gains or improve-
ments are expected in the future. HPGR, being a relatively new
technology, is expected to offer excellent opportunities for operational
and maintenance improvements in the future.”
To learn more about how feed materials affect the performance of
HPGRs, this paper is concerned with the comminution of mineral
mixtures in a laboratory high-pressure roll mill. The various feed
mixtures have a range of compositions of a hard and a soft component.
The study is directed towards evaluation of the effect of mixture
composition on mill parameters and operating variables, energy
expenditure and energy distribution among the mixture constituents,
and the product size distributions.
2. Materials, equipment and procedure
Two materials different in their physical properties and chemical
composition, namely, limestone (99.8% CaCO3) and quartz, were used
individually and in admixtures for comminution in the HPGR. Quartz
is a hard brittle mineral whereas limestone is a soft compressible
material. The size distribution of the two components in the feed
(essentially 8 × 28 mesh) is shown in Table 1. The median particle size
Table 1
Size distribution of feed mixture constituents.
Constituent Size fraction, mesh
8 × 10 10 × 14 14 × 20 20 × 28 − 28
Limestone, wt.% 12.8 21.0 61.4 3.6 1.2
Quartz, wt.% 9.9 27.9 32.7 28.3 1.2
Fig. 1. Variation of roll gap and applied load as a function of mixture composition at a set
energy level of 1.45 kWh/ton.
of the quartz and limestone feed was 1060 and 1090 μm, respectively.
Limestone/quartz (Ls/Qz) feed mixtures were prepared in the
proportions 10, 25, 50, 75, and 90%, as well as grinding each material
alone (100%), and ground dry. These two materials were chosen not
only because of their differences in grindabilities and their similar
densities but also to simplify size analysis.
The laboratory-scale HPGR at the University of California, Berkeley,
is constructed with two counter-rotating rolls, each 200 mm in
diameter and 100 mm in width (Fuerstenau et al., 1993). This fully
instrumented mill is powered by a 35 kW d.c. motor. The controlling
parameter was the mill load, which was adjusted at three levels,
namely, 2.54, 5.82, and 12.1 ton. The reference conditions at each load
level were those obtained when the feed to the mill was pure quartz.
The measured parameters as a function of mixture composition
included the load, expended energy, roll speed, roll gap, time of
grinding, and the collected sample weight. The product material was
soaked in water for disintegration, and a standard wet-dry screening
method was used to determine the size distribution of the product
mixture. Representative samples of each size fraction were leached
with hydrochloric acid to dissolve the limestone, and the remaining
quartz was washed, filtered, dried and weighed to obtain the size
distribution of quartz. By subtraction, the size distribution of
limestone in the mixture was calculated.
3. Results and discussion
Three main aspects of our investigation are presented and
discussed in this paper, namely, the effect of mixture composition
on mill parameters and operating variables, specific energy expendi-
ture and its distribution among the mixture constituents, and the
product characteristics. Although interrelated, each of these aspects
will be discussed separately, and then interactions with each other are
illustrated.
3.1. Effect of mixture composition on mill parameters and
operating variables
As already stated, the reference parameter levels are their values
when pure quartz is fed to the mill. Under the set conditions, the
specific energy was set for quartz at 0.75, 1.45, and 2.5 kWh/ton. The
effect on mill operating parameters for the three conditions all
exhibited similar trends, and hence, only those results for 1.45 kWh/
Median particle
ton experiments are shown in Fig. 1. Here, the variation in applied load
size, µm
is plotted as a function of the mixture composition, showing that the
1090 applied load increases with increasing percentage of limestone in the
1060
feed. This is probably due to a decrease in the flowability of the
 A.-Z.M. Abouzeid, D.W. Fuerstenau / Int. J. Miner. Process. 93 (2009) 59–65 61

product, that is, the increase in caking tendency as the percentage of

quartz in the mixture is reduced. This state creates a push-away force,
which is reflected as an increase in the applied load.
Fig. 1 presents also the dependence of the roll gap on the feed
composition and shows that the roll gap increases as the percentage of
limestone in the mixture is increased. However, it was expected that
as the applied load increases, the roll gap should have decreased as a
result of the higher load applied on the rolls. As discussed above, the
high compressibility of the limestone (its reduced flowability through
the gap) causes the rolls to be pushed apart with the attendant
increase in roll gap. That is, the gap is forced to increase with
increasing limestone content in the feed, which, in turn, causes an
increase in the applied load. An increase in the gap with the increase
in the percentage of limestone in a mixture feed was also observed by
Schoenert (1988), who attributed this phenomenon to the interaction
between the material and the roll surface. With limestone (soft
material), the roll surface is coated with a material film which Fig. 3. Roll speed, in rpm, as a function of applied load, in tonnes, for grinding an Ls/Qz
increases the external friction between the material and the rolls. This feed containing 50% limestone in the HPGR.
effect causes more material to be drawn between the rolls, and hence,
the gap to increase. In the case of quartz (hard material), the roll other words, the throughput will be directly proportional to the
surface is kept clean of material, and the external friction between the [gap] × [roll speed × roll length × roll circumference]. Lumping the roll
rolls and the material decreases. This reduces the tendency of feed to length, roll diameter and the time used for mill speed (that is, minutes
be drawn between the rolls, and consequently causing the gap to or hours) as a constant K, the volume of material per unit time would
decrease. It is possible that both phenomena, material caking and be proportional to [K] × [gap] × [roll speed]. Using the measured values
higher friction, have a combined effect which leads to increasing the of the gap and roll speed for feeds containing 25% and 75% limestone,
roll gap and, hence, the applied load. the ratio of the actual throughput to the relative calculated
Fig. 2 shows the trend in roll speed with changing limestone/ throughput is 1.14 K and 1.15 K, respectively, which shows that
quartz (Ls/Qz) ratio in the feed. As the push-away force (load) acting throughput indeed has this simple dependence.
on the roll surface increases, as a result of increasing the amount of Schoenert (1988) expressed the specific energy, Em, supplied to
limestone in the feed, friction forces between the rolls and the material flowing through a HPGR as follows:
material passing through them increase. The higher friction force
caused the roll speed to decrease as the limestone/quartz ratio is Em = ð2 = bLÞðαF = ρb wÞ ð1Þ
increased. As a matter of fact, it appears that roll speed in the HPGR
decreases linearly as the applied load increases. Fig. 3 presents the roll where b is a constant, L is the roll length, α is the force acting angle
speed, in rpm, as a function of the applied load at an Ls/Qz ratio of 1:1. (constant), F is the applied force, ρb, is the bulk density at the gap
The relationship is reasonably linear. neck, and w is the gap width. This relationship suggests that, with all
As the roll gap increased with increasing limestone/quartz ratio in other parameters kept constant, the specific energy supplied to the
the feed, the thickness of the compacted product from the mill mill should increase linearly with increasing applied force. However,
increased. The result was an increase in throughput as the fraction of Fig. 5 presents plots of the specific energy as a function of feed
limestone in the feed mixture was increased, as can be seen in Fig. 4. composition for three different energy levels. As can be seen from
The throughput would have gained more with increasing percentage Fig. 5, the specific energy for the mixture is constant at all energy
of limestone in the feed if the roll speed had not decreased levels, independent of mixture composition. As mentioned earlier, the
simultaneously (Fig. 2). This means that the throughput rate is applied load increases with increased limestone fraction in the feed
directly proportional to the roll gap and the roll speed for any given mixture which, according to the above relationship, means that the
feed mixture since the density of the two components is the same. In energy supplied to the mill should have increased with increasing the

Fig. 2. Variation of roll speed in rpm as a function of composition of limestone/quartz Fig. 4. Variation of the HPGR throughput as a function of feed mixture composition at an
feed mixtures at an energy level of 1.45 kWh/ton. energy level 1.45 kWh/ton.
62 A.-Z.M. Abouzeid, D.W. Fuerstenau / Int. J. Miner. Process. 93 (2009) 59–65

Fig. 6. Cumulative weight percent finer than the stated size for quartz and limestone in
the HPGR product at an energy level of 2.5 kWh/ton for feeds containing 100% and 10%
Fig. 5. Specific energy consumption as a function of feed mixture composition in the
of each material.
High Pressure Grinding Roll at different input energy levels.

limestone fraction in the mixture, but it did not. This trend of the
specific energy suggests that α may not be constant, but it decreases
as the applied force increases such that the specific energy stays
constant even if the load changes. Another possible reason for the
specific energy being independent of the mixture composition is that
the ratio F/w may be constant for each energy level over the whole
mixture composition spectrum. The latter reasoning was investigated
by calculating the values of the ratio F/w at each energy level, which
showed that there is no real trend of F/w as a function of the applied
load, and that the relative standard deviation of these values
fluctuates within 5% of the average values. This suggests that the
parameter α (the force acting angle) is constant and the above
relationship holds. In our case, the specific energy is independent of
feed composition suggesting that F/w and α are both constant.
From the foregoing discussion, one can deduce the following
parallel effects as the fraction of limestone in the feed is increased.
First, the applied load increases, and hence, the specific expended
energy is expected to increase. Second, the roll gap increases and
consequently the throughput increases, leading one to expect that the
specific energy should decrease. As can be seen from the plots given in
Fig. 5, at all energy levels investigated, all these effects balance out so
that the specific energy does not change as the feed mixture
composition varies.
3.2. Effect of mixture composition on the product characteristics
limestone was the same under all grinding conditions. It seems that in
presence of limestone, the mode of quartz breakage was by chipping
the particles corners and edges more than by breaking the large
particles, which may be a result of the isostatic-like loading around
the large quartz particles by the finer limestone particles. This is
clearly shown in Fig. 6. Kapur et al. (1992) reported that the product
size distribution of quartz ground in admixture with limestone in a
HPGR was self-similar. The feed in their case was a single-size fraction,
8 × 10 mesh. It is possible that the feed particles, in their case, were
only very slightly smaller than the gap width, which forced the hard
quartz particles to be broken in order to pass through the gap. In our
case, the wide size distribution of the feed (8 × 28 mesh), some of the
small quartz particles apparently passed through without being
broken, as shown in the mixture size distribution in Fig. 6. This
means that the softer limestone particles could not transfer sufficient
energy for the quartz particles to be comminuted by the interparticle
breakage process. In general, quartz is highly sensitive to mixture
composition, whereas the sensitivity of limestone to the mixture
composition is low.
Fig. 7 presents the fineness of the two components in the product,
as expressed by the median particle size of the product, X50p, as a
function of feed composition for three different specific energy levels.
The addition of 10% quartz to the feed mixture results in a fairly sharp
decrease in the median particle size of the ground limestone. Even this
small amount of quartz must enhance inter-particle breakage in the

The particle size distributions of each of the two materials, quartz

and limestone, ground alone and in admixture were determined.
Examples of these distributions are presented in Fig. 6, which shows
the product size distribution for each of the two materials when they
were ground alone and when they comprised 10% of the feed mixture.
Although the feed size distributions of the two minerals are almost the
same (Table 1), the product size distributions are quite different. This
shows that grinding the two materials in the HPGR is different from
grinding the same Ls/Qz mixtures in a batch ball mill, where the size
distributions of the two different materials is the same whether
ground alone or in a mixture (Somasundaran and Fuerstenau, 1963).
In the case of limestone, the whole size spectrum is subjected to
comminution at all mixture compositions. This means that the
grindability of limestone in this range of mixture compositions is
almost the same and is not different from grinding limestone alone. In
the case of quartz, the size distributions are quite distinctive from each
other as the percentage of quartz in the mixture is changed. As a
matter of fact, quartz in this series of experiments showed lack of self- Fig. 7. The median particle size of limestone and quartz in the HPGR product as a
similarity as the grinding conditions change, whereas the behavior of function of the feed mixture composition at various energy levels.
 A.-Z.M. Abouzeid, D.W. Fuerstenau / Int. J. Miner. Process. 93 (2009) 59–65
roll gap. At all three energy levels, increasing the fraction of quartz
above 10% in the feed has only a small effect on the fineness of the
limestone in the ground product. On the other hand, adding 10%
limestone to the feed causes the median particle size of the quartz
product to increase, and particularly so at the higher specific energy
levels. As more limestone is added to the feed, the median particle size
of the quartz product increases, that is, comminution of the quartz
particles is retarded. This phenomenon may be the result of the
increased amount of fine limestone particles creating an isostatic-like
pressure around the quartz particles, retarding their breaking. When
the feed consists of only 10% quartz, the breakage of quartz particles is
even more retarded, as indicated by the increase in X50 shown in Fig. 7.
This behavior will always be important in the comminution of ores
comprised of minerals of different hardness and grindability, and
particularly so in the HPGR comminution of diamond ores/.
Let us now look at the amount of minus 200-mesh particles
produced in various products at different feed compositions and
specific energy levels. As can be observed from the plots given in Fig. 8,
the amount of minus 200-mesh limestone in the product increases as
the percentage of quartz in the feed is increased, which is an
indication that the quartz particles act as an energy transfer medium
for limestone in the HPGR. The harder quartz particles must act like a
catalyst in transferring energy to the softer limestone particles as they
pass through the roll gap. Fig. 8 also shows that the percentage of
minus 200-mesh quartz in the product decreases as the percentage of
limestone in the mixture is increased. Apparently, the soft component
absorbs a higher share of the useful energy as a result of the
preferential breakage of limestone. In addition to the isostatic
pressure phenomenon, the harder quartz particles may lose some of
the input energy by friction as they penetrate through the soft bed of
limestone particles. This behavior is accentuated as the applied
specific energy is increased, as indicated by the rate of decrease of fine
quartz particle production (− 200 mesh) as the Ls/Qz ratio is
increased.
3.3. Effect of feed composition on the energy distribution
For pressurized roll mill grinding, it is of interest to determine how
the energy expended in grinding a mixed feed is distributed among
the mixture components. To quantify the utilization of comminution
energy by the various components in the feed being ground, an energy
split factor was developed by Kapur and Fuerstenau (1988) and
utilized for analyzing the ball mill grinding of heterogeneous mixtures
(Fuerstenau et al., 1992). Specifically, the energy split factor, S, is
defined as the energy expended in grinding each of the components
Fig. 8. The percentage of minus 200-mesh limestone and quartz in the HPGR product as
a function of the feed composition at various energy levels.
63
alone divided by the energy consumed in grinding the mixture such
that the same degree of fineness is attained for that component:
Si = EðiaÞ = EðmÞ ð2Þ
where Si is the energy split factor for component i, E(ia) is energy
expended in grinding component i alone, and E(m) is the energy
consumed in grinding the mixture to attain the same degree of
fineness of component i. Experimentally, it was found that when
quartz and limestone were ground individually or in admixture, as
well as their mixture as a whole, the following energy-size reduction
relationship is obeyed (Kapur et al., 1990):
h i
X50f = X50p = jE + 1 ð3Þ
where j is the slope of the straight line, X50f and X50p are the median
particle sizes of the feed and product, respectively. This relation had its
origins from Kapur's years of consideration of the self-similarity of the
size distributions of comminution products. The slope of the line, j,
which has the units of tonnes per kWh, (kWh/ton)- 1, is termed the
Kapur–Fuerstenau measure of grindability.
From Eq. (3), we may write for quartz, component 1, ground alone,
and in an admixture:
h i
X50f = X50p ð1aÞ = jð1aÞEð1aÞ + 1 ð4Þ
and
h i
X50f = X50p ð1mÞ = jð1mÞEðmÞ + 1 ð5Þ
Hence, by definition of the energy split factor in Eq. (2), it follows
that:
S1 = jð1mÞ = jð1aÞ ð6Þ
which is simply the ratio of the slope of the energy-reduction ratio
relationship for quartz at each mixture composition divided by the
slope when quartz is ground alone.
For limestone, component 2:
S2 = ½jð2mÞ = jð2aÞ½1 + Eo = EðmÞ ð7Þ
where Eo/E(m) is a factor that takes care of the fact that the straight
lines in the case of limestone do not intercept the y-axis at the value of
1.0 at zero energy level. Since Eo is small, Eq. (7) can be approximated
by:
S2 = jð2mÞ = jð2aÞ ð8Þ
Eq. (8) gives the split factor for limestone (component 2) at each
mixture composition.
The energy–reduction ratio relationship for each of the compo-
nents, limestone and quartz, at the different compositions is shown in
Fig. 9. From the ratio of the slopes, the split factors can be calculated.
First of all, a quick glance at these plots shows how much greater is the
grindability of limestone as compared to quartz. In the case of 100%
feed, the grindability of limestone is 1.3 t/kWh whereas that of quartz
is 0.7 t/kWh. The grindability of a mineral depends not only on its
hardness, but also on its toughness. As can be seen from the plots
given in Fig. 9, the effect of quartz on the behavior of mixtures appears
to be far greater than that of limestone. It appears that differences in
hardness of the components in the mixed feed may be more
important in high-pressure roll mill grinding than differences in
grindability. Although the grindability of the two materials differs only
by a factor of two, the hardness of the two components differs greatly.
The Vickers hardness of quartz is 450 whereas that of calcite is only 60
64 A.-Z.M. Abouzeid, D.W. Fuerstenau / Int. J. Miner. Process. 93 (2009) 59–65

significant increase in the slope of the reduction ratio-versus-specific

energy plot for limestone when quartz is added to the feed. This
indicates that the addition of quartz enhances the grindability of
limestone in the HPGR. Producing a limestone product of 300 μm in
the HPGR with 50% added quartz in the feed reduced the energy of
1.9 kWh/ton to only 1.3 kWh/ton. On the other hand, the presence of
the limestone in the Qz/Ls feed mixture causes a slight decrease in the
grindability of quartz.
The energy split factor was used together with the ratio of the
components in the feed for the various grinding conditions and the
specific energy supplied to the mill to calculate the energy share for
each component as follows:

Energy share for component i = ½Si ½qi ½Em  ð9Þ

Fig. 9. The reduction ratio, X50f / X50p, or each component in the HPGR product as a
function of the specific energy consumption in kWh/ton for comminuting feeds with a where Si is the split factor of component i, ‘qi’ is the fraction of
range of compositions. component i in the mixture, and Em is the specific energy supplied to
the mill.
In the case of ball mill grinding, from the size distributions of the
(Zwikker, 1954). Since our limestone is 99.8% calcium carbonate, we
products from grinding Ls/Qz mixtures, the sum of the calculated
can assume that its hardness will be close to that of calcite.
energy utilized for grinding limestone and that for grinding quartz is
The changes in the split factor for each of the two components,
the same as that measured for the feed mixture. Similar calculations
quartz and limestone, at different mixture compositions, are plotted in
were made for the energy required to achieve the size distribution of
Fig. 10. The trend of the energy split factor for limestone shows that
quartz and of limestone in our current experiments on grinding Ls/Qz
the hard component (quartz) helps in breaking the soft component
mixtures in the HPGR system for the three energy levels and for the
(limestone). Since quartz acts partly as energy transfer media to the
range of compositions. In Fig. 11, the measured specific energy is
limestone, its share of the energy which is utilized for quartz breakage
shown with the filled symbols for each energy level. The specific
is reduced as the percentage of limestone increases.
energy here is given as kWh/ton of feed mixture. Also, in Fig. 11, we
have plotted the calculated specific energy to achieve the product size
3.4. Enhanced energy efficiency in HPGR mixture comminution
distributions as open symbols for the same experiments. These plots
clearly show that the presence of the harder quartz enhances the
The baseline for assessing energy efficiency in comminution is the
effective grindability of the mixture in the particle bed as the material
energy required for the breakage of single particles in slow
passes through the gap. Apparently, there is greater utilization of the
compression (Schoenert, 1979). As already mentioned, the next
input energy through enhanced energy transfer by the hard particles
most efficient method is breakage in a bed of particles, which is
to the softer ones within the particle bed, which reduced energy loss
carried out continuously in the HPGRs. Fuerstenau and Kapur (1994)
by friction between the finer comminuted limestone particles. When
reported finding that the energy efficiency of comminuting dolomite
quartz becomes the dominant mineral in the feed, this enhancement
in a laboratory HPGR, as compared with the breakage of a single
of apparent grindability of the mixture no longer is evident. Thus, in a
particle in slow compression, is 44%. They also reported that the ball
locked-cycle or closed-circuit grinding system, this phenomenon may
mill grinding (loose-bed comminution) of the same dolomite was
not occur since the harder component always builds up in the recycle.
only 21% as efficient taking the energy consumed in single-particle
This is clear from Fig. 11, where the gain in energy is higher at higher
breakage as a reference. Is there a possibility of increasing the energy
ratios of the Ls/Qz in the feed mixtures, and lower as quarts fraction in
efficiency of particle-bed comminution if the components in the
the mixture is increased.
mixture differ in grindability? The results given in Fig. 9 show a

Fig. 11. The measured (filled-in symbols) and calculated enhancement (open symbols)
Fig. 10. Energy split factor for each of the materials being comminuted in the HPGR as a of energy efficiency of HPGR comminution as a function of the feed mixture
function of the feed mixture composition. composition at different energy levels.
 A.-Z.M. Abouzeid, D.W. Fuerstenau / Int. J. Miner. Process. 93 (2009) 59–65
4. Summary and conclusions
As representatives for soft and hard feed components, limestone and
quartz were ground in admixtures of different compositions in the HPGR.
The study aimed at investigating the effect of the mixture composition on
mill parameters and operating variables, product characteristics as
reflected on each of the two components, and the expended specific
energy and its distribution between the mixture constituents.
The mill parameters and operating variables (applied load, roll gap,
roll speed, mill throughput, and specific energy) are interrelated. As the
limestone/quartz ratio in the mixture is increased, the applied load, roll
gap, and throughput increase, whereas the roll speed decreases. By
changing the energy level, the trend of change of all these parameters as a
function of mixture composition remains the same. The effect of the
foregoing parameters balance out each other at all energy levels, that is,
specific energy is independent of the mixture composition.
The breakage behavior of the two components is different. Particles
throughout the size spectrum of the soft component are subjected to
breakage, whereas in the case of the hard component, the coarse fractions
are highly broken while rebreakage of the finer particles is a strong
function of mixture composition and energy level. That is, the hard
component is more sensitive to mixture composition and energy level
than the soft component. As a result, the median particle size of the
limestone is not significantly affected by the mixture composition,
whereas in the case of quartz, the median particle size is a strong function
of the feed mixture composition and the specific energy level. These
effects appear to be more dependent on differences in hardness than in
differences in grindability of feed components.
The median particle sizes of both components decrease with
increasing expended energy. Furthermore, the expended energy is split
between the two components such that the split factor for the soft
component (limestone) increases as the ratio of the hard component
(quartz) in the mixture is increased. For the hard component (quartz), the
energy split factor decreases as the percentage of the soft component is
increased. The difference in energy share between limestone and quartz
increases as the product becomes finer.
The energy efficiency of particle-bed comminution depends on
energy transfer to the particles being broken and the extent of energy
loss by friction between particles within the bed. The presence of the
harder quartz particles in the feed leads to greater energy utilization in
the HPGR by enhancing the utilization of the energy input to the bed.
The added hard mineral essentially acts as a grinding aid in the
system. When quartz becomes the dominant component in the feed
mixture, this enhancement disappears. If materials in a feed mixture
had the same grindability and hardness, this would not be expected.
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