Abstract
The breakage and liberation of minerals are the key to fluidized mining for minerals. In the ball milling process, steel balls function as not only a grinding action implementer but also energy carrier to determine the breakage behavior of ores and the production capacity of the mill. When ground products present a much coarse or much fine particle size distribution, the separation process will suffer, resulting in inefficient recovery of useful minerals. Optimal control of the particle size distribution of the products is therefore essential, but the complexity and randomness of ball mill grinding make it difficult to determine the appropriate ball size. To solve the problem in the precise measurement of grinding ball diameters, this paper carried out magnetite grinding experiments with grinding balls of different diameters under the same grinding conditions to study the influence pattern of steel ball diameters on the particle break behavior, the particle size distribution of ground products, and the mineral liberation degree distribution. The research proposed on the matching relation between the ball size and the quality of ground products is essential for improving the ground product quality and reducing energy consumption.
Highlights
The efficiency of mineral separation and utilization is part of the research in the fluidized mining technology, and the breakage and liberation of minerals are the key to the efficiency of mineral utilization [1]
The particle breakage appearance, which records the whole process of mineral cracking under the action of ball milling media, is the surface formed after ores are fractured by the ball milling process
This paper studied the influence of steel ball sizes on the particle size distribution of ground products, particle surface morphology, and mineral liberation distribution, suggesting that a proper ball diameter was necessary to realize the required quality of ground products, and concluded as follows: The effect of steel ball diameters on the surface morphology of magnetite was studied
Summary
The efficiency of mineral separation and utilization is part of the research in the fluidized mining technology, and the breakage and liberation of minerals are the key to the efficiency of mineral utilization [1]. Ball milling uses steel balls to realize grinding effect, that is, to achieve the ore particle comminution through impact and abrasion with steel balls, and plays an important role in the production of a beneficiation plant. It has many advantages, including large reduction ratio, good breakage effect, and strong applicability, [6], there are drawbacks in it at the same time, such as low efficiency, large consumption of steel balls, and serious liner wear [7]. It is of practical significance to reduce the beneficiation cost and improve the separation index by optimizing the grinding process and selective grinding [8]
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