Milling, as the very first step in mineral ores processing, controls its successive stages in terms of costs and efficiency. In ball mills, not only do grinding balls act to break the ores into smaller particles, but also they determine fineness of the ground material which will in turn dominate the productivity of fluidized mining. In another words, optimal size distribution of output product of ball mill is essential to effective recovery of useful minerals from ores.
Appropriate grinding balls and liners size, type, shape, chemical composition, and mechanical properties can both increase the quality of the finished product and reduce power consumption. Energy efficiency is a growing concern for the mining industry. Studies show that particle size reduction processes, including grinding, consume about 4% of electrical energy globally and some 50% of electricity requirement of a mine site. Now grinding process alone is responsible for almost 80% of particle size reduction until ores turn into liberated particles of target minerals.
Choice of grinding balls and liners in ball mills or SAG mills plays a vital role in mining power consumption. Another key factor is ball mills charging that can set plants back if done mistakenly. To our experience, several mineral processing plants today suffer from malpractices in grinding balls and liner selection. This has brought about several, perhaps invisible, costs to the mining industry. Bad choice of grinding media and liners will sacrifice quality of the finished product on one hand while increasing the utility costs on the other.
There are several examples of cases where saving money for a key consumable like grinding balls is reducing a plant overall turnover drastically. Yet surprisingly many managers and plant owners are unaware of such losses.
Alpha Grinding Media provides consultancy services to mining sites to reduce both grinding balls and power consumption, while improving product in grade. For more information on our consultancy services, do not hesitate to contact us! Our team of experts will get back to you in no time.
