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Minerals
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Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution
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Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Mineral Processing and Extractive Metallurgy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2022) | Viewed by 12531

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Josep Oliva

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Guest Editor
Departament d’Enginyeria Minera, Industrial i TIC, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Av. Bases de Manresa, 08242 Manresa, Spain
Interests: mineral processing; comminution; modeling
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Hernan Anticoi

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Guest Editor
Escuela Politecnica de Ingenieria de Minas y Energia, Universidad de Cantabria, Ronda Rufino Peón, 39316 Torrrelavega, Spain
Interests: mineral processing; comminution; modeling; energy optimization; pollution remediation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Comminution is the biggest energy-consuming operation in mineral processing. The aim is to liberate locked minerals in order to provide the best conditions for further separation units. If the liberation is not enough, the separation processes will be inefficient.

Experimental studies on mineral comminution are essential in order to understand how mineral breaks and what the particle size distribution of the products will be after this breakage process. In this regard, experimental studies and numerical development take a leading role in defining comminution processes. With this information, industrial comminution may be optimized using particle size distribution sensors and advanced control systems with artificial intelligence. If we want to apply all of these technologies, we have to know the breakage process linked with the parameter process, and experimental and numerical studies allow us to collect these data.

This Special Issue aims to collect new work in this field and to disseminate knowledge around the world in order to advance this area of mineral processing.

Prof. Dr. Josep Oliva
Prof. Dr. Hernan Anticoi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • comminution
  • modeling
  • crushing
  • grinding
  • liberation
  • optimization
  • energy saving

Related Special Issues

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 7110 KiB  
Article
Effect of Slurry Concentration on the Ceramic Ball Grinding Characteristics of Magnetite
by Chengfang Yuan, Caibin Wu, Xin Fang, Ningning Liao, Jiaqi Tong and Chao Yu
Minerals 2022, 12(12), 1569; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12121569 - 06 Dec 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1292
Abstract
Ceramic grinding, which in this paper is defined as a method of using ceramic materials as grinding media, is favored by many processing plants as an emerging high-efficiency and energy-saving grinding method. This paper investigates the effect of slurry mass concentration on the [...] Read more.
Ceramic grinding, which in this paper is defined as a method of using ceramic materials as grinding media, is favored by many processing plants as an emerging high-efficiency and energy-saving grinding method. This paper investigates the effect of slurry mass concentration on the grinding characteristics of magnetite by taking the feed of the secondary ball mill for processing magnetite as the research object. The study results show that the slurry mass concentration significantly affects the ceramic ball grinding characteristics of magnetite, especially for coarse particles. When the grinding concentration is higher than 50%, the breakage rate of magnetite plummets to 1/3 of the value at low mass concentrations. The standard deviation of the breakage rate relative to the concentration gradually decreases as the feed size falls, indicating that the coarser the feed size, the more sensitive the ceramic ball grinding is to the concentration, and thus industrial secondary ceramic ball mills need to avoid grinding under high-quality concentrations. The change in the consistency parameter of distribution function and zero-order output characteristics signals a radical variation in the grinding characteristics of magnetite using the ceramic ball grinding method compared to conventional grinding. Because the ceramic ball grinding method can greatly reduce energy consumption while lowering the chance of overgrinding, this grinding method deserves more attention as the world works to reach carbon neutrality and emissions peak. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution)
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11 pages, 10332 KiB  
Article
Methodology and Model to Predict HPGR Throughput Based on Piston Press Testing
by Giovanni Pamparana, Bern Klein and Mauricio Guimaraes Bergerman
Minerals 2022, 12(11), 1377; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12111377 - 29 Oct 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2228
Abstract
Sizing High-Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) requires a large quantity of material, making it not attractive and costly to be considered for new mining projects regardless of their energy consumption reduction benefits. Ongoing efforts are being made at the University of British Columbia to [...] Read more.
Sizing High-Pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR) requires a large quantity of material, making it not attractive and costly to be considered for new mining projects regardless of their energy consumption reduction benefits. Ongoing efforts are being made at the University of British Columbia to predict the behaviour of the HPGR using a low quantity of material on a piston-and-die press apparatus. Although the energy requirements and size reduction predictive models are already developed, there is still a need to predict the HPGR throughput on a small-scale test. This paper presents a new model to predict the HPGR throughput based on the previously developed model to predict the operational gap by using less than 2 kg of sample. The throughput model was developed using machine learning techniques and calibrated using pilot-scale HPGR tests and piston press tests. The resulting model has an R2 of 0.91 with an average prediction error of ±4.2%. The developed methodology has the potential to fill the gap of the missing throughput model. Further pilot-scale HPGR testing is required to continue validating the model. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution)
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9 pages, 2511 KiB  
Article
Differences in Properties between Pebbles and Raw Ore from a SAG Mill at a Zinc, Tin-Bearing Mine
by Wenhan Sun, Jinlin Yang, Hengjun Li, Wengang Liu and Shaojian Ma
Minerals 2022, 12(6), 774; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12060774 - 17 Jun 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2042
Abstract
Semi-autogenous (SAG) mills are widely used grinding equipment, but some ore with critical particle sizes cannot be effectively processed by SAG mills and turned into pebbles. This research aims to analyze and compare the properties of raw ore and pebbles from a zinc- [...] Read more.
Semi-autogenous (SAG) mills are widely used grinding equipment, but some ore with critical particle sizes cannot be effectively processed by SAG mills and turned into pebbles. This research aims to analyze and compare the properties of raw ore and pebbles from a zinc- and tin-bearing ore. The results show that the contents of sphalerite, cassiterite, biotite, antigorite, pyroxferroite, ferroactinolite, and ilvaite in the raw ore are higher than those in the pebbles, and that the pebbles have higher contents of hedenbergite, chlorite, epidote, actinolite, etc. Meanwhile, the abrasion and impact resistance of pebbles is greater than that of the raw ore. In addition, the sphalerite is evenly embedded, and the grinding process is regular. Fine cassiterite associated with harder minerals is difficult to dissociate; it is often found in softer or brittle minerals which may be easily ground into ore mud. The cassiterite in the pebbles is associated with hard and brittle hedenbergite and soft chlorite, making it difficult to recover. This research provides a good foundation for evaluating the recovery value of pebbles and improving the productivity of the SAG process. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution)
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12 pages, 1192 KiB  
Article
Study on the Grinding Law of Ball Media for Cassiterite–Polymetallic Sulfide Ore
by Jinlin Yang, Xingjian Deng, Wenzhe Xu, Hengjun Li and Shaojian Ma
Minerals 2022, 12(2), 270; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12020270 - 21 Feb 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1381
Abstract
To solve the problem involved in the grinding of cassiterite–polymetallic sulfide ore in which fine grinding causes the cassiterite to be overground or coarse grinding leads to inadequate liberation of sulfide minerals, the influences of the ball grinding medium on the size distribution [...] Read more.
To solve the problem involved in the grinding of cassiterite–polymetallic sulfide ore in which fine grinding causes the cassiterite to be overground or coarse grinding leads to inadequate liberation of sulfide minerals, the influences of the ball grinding medium on the size distribution of the grinding product were investigated. Two types of ball filling patterns, namely, single-sized and multi-sized ball grinding media, were adopted in wet batch grinding tests. The results show that increasing the grinding time resulted in a rapid increase in minus 0.038 mm particles and a slight increase in the Sn grade in this fine size fraction. The smaller the ball filling fraction was, the more obviously the ball size affected the size distribution of the grinding product, the variation of which with the ball size became complicated with the increase in the ball filling fraction. Obvious jumping phenomena in the plotting of the percentages of the discussed size fractions against the ball size were observed when the balling filling fraction was larger than 30%; the most obvious jumping phenomena took place at a 35% ball filling fraction. The results of the grinding tests with the multi-sized media show that the size distribution of the grinding product was closely related to that of the mixed ball sizes and their composition percentages. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution)
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16 pages, 1956 KiB  
Article
Research on the Selective Grinding of Zn and Sn in Cassiterite Polymetallic Sulfide Ore
by Jinlin Yang, Wenzhe Xu, Xingjian Deng, Hengjun Li and Shaojian Ma
Minerals 2022, 12(2), 245; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12020245 - 15 Feb 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1668
Abstract
When cassiterite polymetallic sulfide ore is being ground in the ball mill, the contradiction between over grinding of cassiterite and under grinding of sulfide ore is inevitable due to their mechanical property differences. In this paper, a selective grinding characterization method is proposed [...] Read more.
When cassiterite polymetallic sulfide ore is being ground in the ball mill, the contradiction between over grinding of cassiterite and under grinding of sulfide ore is inevitable due to their mechanical property differences. In this paper, a selective grinding characterization method is proposed to optimize the grinding of cassiterite polymetallic sulfide ore based on the respective selective grinding indexes, namely, the changes in the cumulative grade and cumulative quantities of metal. The preferred grinding characteristics were studied by varying three grinding operation factors, the grinding time, grinding concentration, and mill speed, as these all affect the selective grinding behavior of the ball mill. In the proposed method, the breaking process preferentially begins with the Zn minerals in the cassiterite polymetallic sulfide ore; however, Sn minerals are found to break first when the specific energy of the grinding media is large. The differences in the crushing characteristics of Zn and Sn minerals narrow down as the grinding time and concentration increase. When the grinding concentration is lower than 50%, the two types of minerals are broken with little difference. However, when the grinding concentration is higher than 50%, the Zn minerals are broken prior to the Sn minerals. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution)
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17 pages, 4427 KiB  
Article
Rod Mill Product Control and Its Relation to Energy Consumption: A Case Study
by Hernan Anticoi, Eduard Guasch, Rubén Pérez-Álvarez, Julio Manuel de Luis-Ruiz, Josep Oliva and Carlos Hoffman Sampaio
Minerals 2022, 12(2), 183; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12020183 - 30 Jan 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 3038
Abstract
Energy consumption and pollution are current strategic issues that need to be addressed in the mining industry. Both have an economic and environmental impact on production, so their optimization, control, and mitigation are, at the very least, mandatory. Although rod milling has fallen [...] Read more.
Energy consumption and pollution are current strategic issues that need to be addressed in the mining industry. Both have an economic and environmental impact on production, so their optimization, control, and mitigation are, at the very least, mandatory. Although rod milling has fallen into disuse in recent decades, some companies still use it in their processing plants. This is due to the ability of rod milling to reduce particle size while avoiding overgrinding. In this study, a material that is particularly difficult to characterize was used to study how to control rod-milling particle size distribution product: potash ore, which is deliquescent and soluble under certain conditions. A laboratory-scale tumbling rod mill was designed for this study, and six operative parameters were tested and analyzed in order to detect the main influences on the mill product, attending to material requirements for further processes such as recirculation load or froth flotation for beneficiation. Although the rotational speed of the mill is the parameter that shows the greatest reduction in energy consumption, reaching almost 40% improvement in specific energy applied to the particles, it is not possible to control particle size reduction ratio. However, when a low percentage of grinding media is used, it reduces around 25% of the energy used and, in turn, reduces the amount of overgrinding (40% reduction in the F300 control parameter, for example), which is a strategic objective of this study. In addition, by controlling other process parameters, such as slurry density or lifter geometry, energy consumption and its subsequent saving and pollution can be controlled, depending on process plant requirements. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Experimental and Numerical Studies of Mineral Comminution)
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