Ore from the storage bins is fed, together with water, to the first grinding circuit in the mill building. This is known as the grinding circuit and consists of one or more ball mills or rod mills. As each mill revolves, the ore within rolls over itself, causing it to be crushed and ground. The grinding media balls in the mill assist this process.
A particularly economic form of grinding, used today wherever possible, is autogenous grinding. This process involves the use of rock-against-rock contact to crush and grind ore to the required size, thus, the cost of periodically replacing steel balls is eliminated, Semi-autogenous grinding refers to the addition of some steel balls to the grinding stage to supplement the rock-on-rock breakage.
It is natural to expect that there will be considerable variation in the size of particles discharged from a grinding mill supplier. Some will be too coarse or too fine for the chemical separation of their constituents to work effectively.
If the crushing process and grinding process is not carefully controlled, some ore particles get reduced to sub-micron sizes. These are called slimes and may interfere with subsequent treatment processes. That is why many crushing circuit and process mill circuit are now controlled by computers.
A particularly economic form of grinding, used today wherever possible, is autogenous grinding. This process involves the use of rock-against-rock contact to crush and grind ore to the required size, thus, the cost of periodically replacing steel balls is eliminated, Semi-autogenous grinding refers to the addition of some steel balls to the grinding stage to supplement the rock-on-rock breakage.
It is natural to expect that there will be considerable variation in the size of particles discharged from a grinding mill supplier. Some will be too coarse or too fine for the chemical separation of their constituents to work effectively.
If the crushing process and grinding process is not carefully controlled, some ore particles get reduced to sub-micron sizes. These are called slimes and may interfere with subsequent treatment processes. That is why many crushing circuit and process mill circuit are now controlled by computers.
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