Quantitative analysis of ore texture breakage characteristics affected by loading mechanism: Fragmentation and mineral liberation

Abstract

• Iron ore textures were fragmented with compression mechanism. • Quantitative characterization of minerals breakage using mineralogical analysis. • Highlights the need for link the ore texture features to comminution process. • Comparison of high and low displacement rates showed more breakage on the later. Mineral liberation as the main purpose of comminution in ore beneficiation is not applied in the design of comminution machines or even often neglected in designing comminution circuits. In addition, other factors critical for comminution efficiency such as fracture energy, and particle fragmentation are rarely considered. The current study investigates the combined effects of particle textural properties and process operational conditions on the fragmentation of bed particle. In particular, the influence of ore texture and loading displacement rate (as the material and machine properties) on particle specific fracture energy, breakage mode, liberation, and fragmentation was studied. The results indicate that ore textures with coarsest grain sizes and lower quantities of cleavage minerals have the least amount of fracture energy. In terms of fragmentation, a lower displacement rates results in higher quantities of the fragmented particles compared to the higher displacement rate. Among studied ore textures, two types of hematite ore textures which had the coarsest grain sizes had lower liberation in finer size fractions. Overall, the outcomes show that the displacement rate and ore texture can affect the specific fracture energy, particle fragmentation, mineral liberation, and breakage mode at different degrees.