Kinetics of Dry-Batch Grinding in a Laboratory-Scale Ball Mill of Sn–Ta–Nb Minerals from the Penouta Mine (Spain)

Abstract

The optimization of processing plants is one of the main concerns in the mining industry, since the comminution stage, a fundamental operation, accounts for up to 70% of total energy consumption. The aim of this study was to determine the effects that ball size and mill speed exert on the milling kinetics over a wide range of particle sizes. This was done through dry milling and batch grinding tests performed on two samples from the Penouta Sn–Ta–Nb mine (Galicia, Spain), and following Austin methodology. In addition, the relationships amongst Sn, Ta and Nb content, as metals of interest, the specific rate of breakage Si, the kinetic parameters, and the operational conditions were studied through X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) techniques. The results show that, overall, the specific rate of breakage Si decreases with decreasing feed particle size and increasing ball size for most of the tested conditions. A selection function, αT, was formulated on the basis of the ball size for both Penouta mine samples. Finally, it was found that there does exist a direct relationship amongst Sn, Ta and Nb content, as metals of interest, in the milling product, the specific rate of breakage Si and the operational–mineralogical variables of ball size, mill speed and feed particle size.

Variability Study of Bond Work Index and Grindability Index on Various Critical Metal Ores

“…Two of the W ore samples were Scheelite ores, received from Barruecopardo (Spain) and Mittersill (Austria). A detailed description of Barruecopardo ore can be found in recent publications [32,33]. In the case of Mittersill, an ore description can be found in [34].…”

Environmentally Friendly Green Synthesis of Fine Particles by Dry Mechanical Processes Toward SDGs: A Review

“…In addition to above, some unique studies which can potentially contribute to meeting SDGs have been reported: e.g., analysis of grinding processes (Bu et al, 2019;2020;Krauze et al, 2021;Nava et al, 2020;Prziwara et al, 2020a;Toraman, 2013), characterization and utilization of ground products (Arsoy et al, 2017;Choi et al, 2016;Gomez et al, 2019;Guzzo et al, 2019;2020;Letelier et al, 2019;Liu et al, 2015;Makuza et al, 2021;Okazaki et al, 2022;Peltoniemi et al, 2020;Yang et al, 2021). However, the grinding mechanism considerably changes depending on the type of grinding machine, which makes it difficult to evaluate the energy efficiency using a unified standard.…”

Grinding and Concentration Technology of Critical Metals

“…Another contribution regarding grinding kinetics of a Ta ore was the research objective in Nava et al [2]. Some variations to classical population balance model methodologies and functional operational correlations were found among the feed size; the specific breakage rate; and the Sn, Ta, and Nb contents.…”