Quantifying the relationship between particles' strength and their mineralogical and textural characteristics

Abstract

Advances in ore characterisation methods, such as automated mineralogy and core scanning technology, as well as in the breakage characterisation field, suggest that the relationship between the ore characteristics and its comminution behaviour can be thought of differently. This study focuses on developing a relationship that allows the transformation of the quantitative characterisation of rock particles (i.e., mineralogical and textural measurements) into particle strength. This study characterised ten different ore types using quantitative methods (i.e., SEM-based technologies and image analysis). At the same time, the strength of particles was collected from physical specimens tested in the SILC over a limited range of particle sizes (3 to 16 mm). The analysis of the databases shows that none of the characteristics has total control over the strength of particles. However, the shape of the grains and the contrast of the physical properties of minerals that compose the particles seem to be more significant in predicting the particles' strength of these rocks. In addition, the model was more successful in predicting particle strength for most rocks with more regular grain sizes, indicating that this parameter requires further comprehension.This research shows that ore characterisation data has the potential to be used to predict the strength of rocks' particles up to a millimetre scale, which is relevant to comminution, which would allow a direct link to be established between the plant and ore characteristics at the particle scale. However, more experimental and numerical studies are needed to develop a predictive and generalised model from quantitative ore characterisation data that may allow improving the modelling of the comminution stage by incorporating more resolution to the system and reducing the laborious work of comminution testing, helping to optimise the whole size reduction process.