Modern trends in the design of comminution processes and equipment for non-ferrous metals ores

Abstract

When designing new concentrator plants or revamping the existing ones, it is crucial to properly size and design the process equipment and choose the supplier. The comminution circuit is the most power consuming of all the processing stages. A variety of tests are usually performed to determine the physical and mechanical properties of ore, and the results of such tests serve as the basis for comminution circuit equipment sizing. Various computer simulation packages are used to find the best solutions in terms of process equipment and processes. Analysis of the in-house and public databases containing the test data helped obtain new relationships with regard to ore hardness. Having analyzed the public laboratory test data accumulated by Alex Doll, as well as the results of experiments conducted by the ore comminution laboratory of the Minerals Processing Department at Saint-Petersburg Mining University, the authors came up with a modern procedure to examine the physical and mechanical properties of ores for equipment sizing to implement a standard cycle of semi-autogenous grinding with further ball milling. Samples of copper-nickel ores were analyzed in this research study. The results of the analysis served as the basis to estimate the power consumption by the comminution circuit. The resultant figures were compared with the power consumption figures of a functioning concentrator plant that processes the studied copper-nickel ores. The estimated specific power consumption of the SAG mill deviated from the actual power consumption by –6.5%. In the case of the ball mills, the deviation was estimated at +14.4%. The total estimated specific power consumption of the entire comminution circuit exceeded the one of the functioning plant by +7.6%. The described approach is applicable to different comminution circuits, which include crushers, high pressure grinding roll, and tumbling mills. The resultant process parameters are necessary and sufficient for the comminution circuit simulation using the JKSimMet software and for crushing circuit simulation using the discrete element method in the RockyDEM software.This research study was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Grant No. 20-55-12002 NNIO_a).