Assessing the dependency of selection function parameters with batch mill design

Abstract

The scale-up of laboratory grinding data to industrial milling operations generally relies on tests carried out in cylindrical ball mills run in batch mode. This approach imposes no restriction on the diameter and length of the laboratory mill.In this work, the breakage characteristics of a copper ore were measured using two batch mills of different designs. For each mill, a number of feed samples of similar size distributions were prepared for testing under various conditions. Product size distributions were then measured after predefined milling time intervals. Finally, the selection function and breakage function parameters of the copper ore were back-calculated from the milling data.Results showed that the breakage function parameters from the two mills are statistically similar indicative of a normalisable copper ore. It was also found that the scale-up equations for batch grinding data described well the effect of mill diameter on the selection function parameters.