Technical Notes - Heavy Media Grinding

Comminution devices such as rod or ball mills are characteristically nonselective in their operation in that all material fed to a mill is ground to some extent. This is unfortunate when the object of comminution is liberation, for not only is energy expended in breaking pure gangue particles wasted, but, since gangue is frequently the predominant phase, the opportunity for such loss is great. Ideally, in this application a comminuting device should develop fracture only in locked particles. In the present investigation an attempt was made to use the large density difference which may exist between minerals to prevent comminution of one while grinding the other. EXPERIMENTAL MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT The two minerals used in this work were -8-mesh galena and -8+ 20-mesh quartz. All tests were made on 2000-g charges containing 50 pct by weight of each mineral. Heavy media suspensions consisted of -100-mesh ferrosilicon in water. For grinding, a laboratory mill 10 in. diam by 12 in. long was filled to about 30 pct of its volume with either a ball or a rod charge. The balls ranged in size from 3/8 to 1 1/8 in. in diam; the rods ranged from 5/8 to 1 1/4 in. diam by 11 in. long. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE In all tests employing heavy media, the ground pulps were treated as follows: 1) After recovering the ground charge from the mill but before drying, the pulp was wet screened on 200 mesh. 2) After drying the + 200-mesh product from step 1, the ferrosilicon was removed magnetically. 3) The nonmagnetic quartz and galena product from step 2 was sized on 10-mesh through 200-mesh screens. 4) The mineralogical composition of each screen fraction was determined by measuring its specific gravity. The specific gravity was related to the weight of galena in the fraction through the relationship