PowderTechnology, 55 (1988) 231 - 240

Fineness of Grind and the Consumption

Media in Tumbling Mills
D. D. HOWAT

231

and Wear Rates of Metallic Grinding

and L. A. VERMEULEN

Council for Mineral Technology

(Mintek), Private Bag X301 5, Randburg, 2125 (South Africa)

(Received November 5, 1986; in revised form November 17,1987)

SUMMARY

The relationships between the fineness of

grind, the consumption and wear rate of the
grinding elements, and the feed rate of the
ore to an open-circuit mill were experimentally investigated. The fineness of grind was
determined by measurement of the harmonic
mean size of the product and the fraction of
material smaller than 75 pm. The harmonic
mean size of the product was found to be
linearly related to the feed rate and its inverse was approximately linearly related to
the fraction of minus 75-urn material.
An analysts of the dependence of the
consumption and wear rate of the grinding
elements on the feed rate yielded expressions
that were in good agreement with the experimental results. These expressions were
used for calculation of relationships between
the consumption of the grinding elements
and the fineness of grind, and between the
wear rate of the grinding elements and the
rate of production of fine material in opencircuit milling.

INTRODUCTION

Ball milling is an established process that

has been in industrial use for over a century
and is employed in many fields, including
the treatment
of mineral ores, chemicals
and foodstuffs.
Because the exploitation
of
ore deposits of progressively lower grade is
becoming increasingly necessary, larger tonnages of ore must be ground and, usually,
to increasing fineness. Initially, ball mills
were relatively small, and fairly extensive
preliminary
crushing and screening of the
ore were needed to produce a feed suitable
0032-5910/88/$3.50

for the mill. Such operations are costly, being

labour-intensive
and involving high maintenance costs and capital expenditure.
In recent
years, mines have therefore tended to install
autogenous or, more frequently,
semi-autogenous mills of larger diameter, and this has
resulted in substantially
lower labour and
maintenance costs and capital investment.
However, in the deep-level mining conditions that prevail in the gold-mining industry
in South Africa, the ore from underground
varies widely in size, often containing large
quantities of fine material that is not particularly suitable for autogenous
milling. In
consequence,
the addition of steel balls to
the mills is often necessary to provide a
degree of stability in the grinding process.
In one form or another, therefore,
ball
milling is likely to continue to play an important role in the fine grinding of ores and
other materials for a considerable time. In
this operation, the major costs arise from the
high consumption
of the metallic grinding
media and of electrical energy - costs that
increase progressively in a non-linear fashion
as the fineness of grind is increased. Factors
that have a major bearing on the efficiency
of the grinding operation include the selection of the optimum grinding elements in
terms of their chemical composition,
metallographic structure, hardness, size, and shape,
the characteristics
of the ore, the size range
of the feed, the size and speed of the mill,
and the design of the mill lining.
Some time ago, the Council for Mineral
Technology
(Mintek) launched an investigation in an attempt to identify the most costeffective ball for the grinding of gold ores
[ 11. During that investigation, certain related
questions arose. The early mills were fed with
short cylinders of cast iron, cut lengths of
@ Elsevier Sequoia/Printed in The Netherlands

232

rail, or other scrap so, if balls are more desirable, what size should they be? Can they be
produced as solid castings or is some degree
of porosity inevitable? Grinding elements of
alternative shape have been proposed such
as cones and Cylpebs. The foundry production costs of such non-spherical
grinding
media are claimed [2] to be lower than those
of balls, and castings with minimum porosity
can be produced. An unusual feature of the
present work was the decision to test the
effects produced on the wear rate and consumption of grinding media of different
shapes by varying the feed rate of the ore
to the mill, a variable that has thrown some
light on certain aspects of ball milling. Data
were accumulated,
and certain aspects are
analysed and discussed.

APPARATUS

AND EXPERIMENTAL

METHODS

The results reported here were derived

from experiments carried out in a laboratory
mill (0.6 m by 0.6 m) rotating at 42 rev./min
(77% critical). The mill was operated with
a smooth lining and with charges of metallic
grinding media of mass 229 + 5 kg which
filled the mill to about 45%. The grinding
media were 60-mm high chromium white
iron balls, and 60-mm cones the diameter
of the base being equal to the height. The
available facilities did not permit valid measurements of the power draw by the mill.
The test work was done on washed quartzite gravel, of which 90% lay within the size
limits 1.7 to 3.4 mm. Mineralogically,
this
material is believed to simulate closely the
gold-bearing quartzite ores of the Witwatersrand. The size distribution
of this feed material is given in Table 1.
The experimental
procedure involved the
placing of an initial charge of ore and water
in the mill in proportions
that would yield
a mill product containing 75% solids, equivalent to about 53% solids by volume. The
flow rates of the ore and the water required
to maintain a pulp of 75% solids and the
pulp density of the discharge were checked
every 30 min. A composite sample of the
discharge was accumulated throughout
each
test, the final sieve analysis, which included
the use of 53- and 45-pm screens, being
carried out in strict conformity with standard

practice. In addition to giving the percentage

of material smaller than 75 pm in the product, the results of the sieve analysis permitted
the harmonic mean size (HMS) of the product
to be calculated by use of the expression
D ,,-1q

where Dmp is the calculated HMS of the

product, pi is the mass fraction of material
in the ith size interval, and Zi is the volume
mean diameter of particles in the ith size
interval, given by [ 31

(Xl2 + q2)(x1 + 3c*) 13

ffi =

where 3t1 and x 2 are the limiting screen apertures. The HMS has also been referred to [3]
as the harmonic mean of the weight distribution. Micrographs taken with the scanning
electron microscope
showed that some of
the particles in the product were of diameter
less than 1.5 pm. This observation suggested
that the size limits of the sub-sieve size fraction could be taken as 45 pm and zero.
The mass of the grinding charge was measured before and after each test, and the loss
in mass was expressed as kilograms per ton
milled or as grams per hour of running time.
The former is referred to here as the consumption and the latter as the wear rate of
the media concerned. Tests were carried out
over a range of feed rates from 0.006 to 0.24
t/h. The total quantities of ore used in any
specific test were adjusted to the selected feed
rate, and ranged from 0.5 to 1.75 t.
RESULTS

The major results of the present work are

given in Table 1, which shows the results of
the sieve analyses and the values of the consumption and wear rate of the grinding media
during the milling of quartz at various feed
rates of ore to the mill. The latter quantities
were calculated from the following formulae:
Consumption:
M=

(kg/ton

Wear rate:
ti =

(g/h)

milled)

(2)

0.006
0.018
0.036
0.054
0.072
0.240

medium

Pm

425
300

1.0
2.1
3.9
5.8
8.7
41.8

60-mm

2.2
3.4
5.4
8.1
11.9
46.9

60-mm

15.25

Retained

(%)

3350

Mesh (pm)

of quartz

48.84

2360

0.6
1.5
2.6
3.9
5.8
10.1

balls

1.0
2.1
3.7
5.1
6.8
9.2

cones

>211
pm

25.26

1700

1.0
2.9
5.5
7.6
10.3
10.8

1.7
3.7
6.7
8.8
10.7
9.7

6.92

1180

1.5
4.4
8.0
10.5
11.7
7.8

2.3
5.7
9.1
10.4
11.5
7.4

> 106
Ctm

> 150

(%)

2.34

850

2.1
5.8
9.0
9.9
10.1
5.9

2.6
6.8
9.5
9.9
9.4
5.3

Pm

>75

0.93

600

3.5
9.7
11.0
11.7
10.6
5.2

4.4
10.3
10.7
10.9
10.1
5.1

Pm

>53

1.4
2.0
2.7
1.9
2.4
1.1

1.2
2.0
2.6
2.2
1.8
0.9

Pm

0.11

425

> 45

89.1
71.7
57.3
48.7
40.5
17.3

84.5
66.1
52.5
44.6
37.9
15.5

Pm

<45

gravel with equal charge masses of 60-mm

Pm

Sieve analysis of product

Sieve analysis of the feed

100
300
600
900
1200
4000

Grinding

0.006
0.018
0.036
0.054
0.072
0.240

medium

Grinding

100
300
600
900
1200
4000

(t/h)

(glmin)

Feed rate

Data relating to tests on the grinding

TABLE

0.09

300

94.0
83.4
71.0
62.3
53.5
23.6

90.1
78.4
65.8
57.7
49.0
21.5

zi

cones

balls

0.05

212

0.0306
0.0343
0.0407
0.0455
0.0514
0.0952

0.0319
0.0372
0.0433
0.0484
0.0544
0.1024

(mm)

0.05

150

Harmonic
mean size

or 60-mm

0.04

106

5.64
15.00
25.5
33.6
38.5
56.6

5.4
14.1
23.7
31.1
35.8
51.6

(kg/h)

0.02

75

Rate of
production
of
-75~l.trn material

media

0.01

53

7.57
4.50
3.02
2.55
2.13
0.91

7.95
4.85
3.23
2.33
2.05
0.72

(kg/t)

0.004

45

Consumption

Grinding

0.03

<45

46.2
78.4
107.0
137.3
154.4
223.4

48.3
85.9
113.6
125.4
148.1
188.6

(g/h)

Wear rate

234

where 6M is the total loss in mass of the

grinding charge in St hours, during which 6T
tons of material were milled.
Clearly,

with equal charge volumes of balls, cones,

Cylpebs and pebbles. The data in Fig. 1 suggest that the formula

M=

where A and B are constants, is a reasonable

description of the relationship between the
inverse of the calculated HMS and the fines
fraction. The relationship is simple because
the quantities Dmpwl and p are both measures
of the fineness of grind.
The fineness parameters A and B in eqn.
(5) can be calculated from the values of the
calculated HMS and the percentage of fines
shown in Table 1. The values of A and B
obtained in milling with equal charge masses
of balls and cones are given in Table 2.

where F is the feed rate (metric tons per

hour).
The following sections explore the relationships between the fineness of grind, the
consumption
and wear rate of the grinding
media, and the feed rate.
Fineness of grind and its dependence on feed
rate
While the fraction or percentage of -75pm material (hereafter referred to as the
fines) in a mill product is often used as an
indicator of the fineness of grind, especially
in the treatment of gold ores, the harmonic
mean size as defined by eqn. (1) has been
determined
throughout
the present work.
The HMS was derived using 8 Tyler sieves
ranging from 425 pm to 45 pm, the oversize
if any being incorporated
into the upper size
interval between 425 pm and 300 pm. This
procedure introduced an error of less than
5%. Figure 1, which includes the data shown
in Table 1, shows the relationship between
the inverse of the HMS and the percentage
fines in the product obtained during milling

D mP -=A

+Bp

TABLE 2
Fineness parameters in the milling of quartzite with
metallic grinding media in a 0.6 m by 0.6 m laboratory mill
Parameter

A (mm-)
B (mm-)
d0

(mm)

b (mm.h.t-i)

Value
Balls

Cones

2.7427
31.430
0.03023
0.2731

3.0089
30.9186
0.03193
0.2958

Earlier testwork [l] had shown that the

calculated HMS increased linearly with the
feed rate of the ore to the mill and one aim
of the present work was to verify this relationship by testwork over a range of feed
rates extended to 40 times that of the lowest
value (0.006 t/h). The calculated HMS from
the data in Table 1 is plotted as a function of
the feed rate in Fig. 2, which shows clearly
that, for balls and cones, the variation is
essentially linear, i.e.,
D mp = do + bF

Fig. 1. Inverse of the harmonic mean size of the

product versus percentage of fines in milling with
equal charge volumes of balls, cones, pebbles and
Cylpebs.

(5)

(6)

The values of the constants do and b are also

given in Table 2. Figure 2 and the values in
Table 1 show that the intercept and the
slope of the line associated with the data
for milling with cones are larger than those
for milling with balls, i.e., at all feedrates a
coarser grind was obtained with cones.
Figure 3, in which the percentage of fines
in the product is plotted as a function of

235

O-4

O-4
Feed me, f/h

Feed

rare. I/h

Fig. 4. Rate of production of fines as a function of

feed rate.

Fig. 2. Harmonic mean size of the product uersus feed

rate during the grinding of quartz gravel with 60-mm
balls or cones.

I
0.1

02

0.3

1
04

The values of a obtained at each of the feed

rates used in the present work (Table 1)
are plotted in Fig. 4, which shows that the
relationship between the rate of production
of fines and the feed rate is, although strongly increasing at low feed rates, decidedly
sub-linear.
Consumption and wear rate of grinding media
in relation to feed rate
Experimental data relating to the consumption of the grinding media (expressed in
kilograms per ton milled) at the various feed
rates of ore to the mill (Table 1) are plotted
in Fig. 5. The graphs show that, irrespective
of the shape of the grinding elements, their
consumption is a strongly decreasing function of the feed rate. At low feed rates, when
the residence time of particles within the
mill is lengthy, the consumption is high and
the grind is fine. This is confirmed by the
experimental data plotted in Fig. 6, which
illustrates the relationship between the

reed rate, t/b

Fig. 3. Percentage of fines in the product as a function of feed rate.

the feed rate, demonstrates that the production of fines in the product is a decreasing
function of the feed rate, and confirms that
the largest amounts of fines were always obtained in the products of milling using spherical grinding elements.
The rate of production of fines, n(t/h),
is an important factor, which is given by
n=pF

(7)

a
-

Experimental data (Table I)

Cakulated
from equatmn (21)

0 10
Feed rate. r/h

II 20

0.10

!I 20

Feed rate, t/h

Fig. 5. Consumption of grinding media as a function

of feed rate.

236

20

40

60

Expenmental data (Table I)

Calculated from equation (26)

-.--.------

Lmcar least-squares fit

c)

Experrmental data (Table I)

Calculated from equation (23)

80

Fmer ,n product.

loo
%

Fig. 6. Consumption of grinding media as a function

of the amount of fines in the product.

0 032

0.004

Rare of praducuon

0 006

of fmes, t/h

0002

0.004

Raw of producuon

0.006

of fmes, I/h

Fig. 8. Wear rate of balls and cones as a function of

the rate of production of fines.

grinding media consumption and the percentage fines in the product. The graphs clearly
show that the production of more than 60%
fines will involve a high consumption of
grinding media, the relationship being strongly super-linear.
As indicated earlier, the residence time of
the particles in the mill and their exposure
to the action within the mill play significant
roles in grinding. The time relationship of
media consumption therefore merits study.
Earlier work [l] had shown that, initially,
the wear of grinding media per unit of running time rose rapidly at low feed rates but
appeared to saturate at progressively higher
feed rates. Figure 7 shows that the results
of the more extensive tests in the present
work confirm that behaviour for balls and
for cones.
B

Experimental data (Table 1)

Calculated from equatmn (20)

Cone mtlhng

:,
Feed rate. r/h

Fig. 7. Wear rate of balls and cones as a function of

feed rate.

Particular significance is attached to the

relationship between the wear rate of the
grinding media and the rate of production
of fines in milling. Figure 8 shows that this
relationship is approximately linear for balls
and for cones. This result indicates that increases in the rate of production of fines in
milling can be achieved only at the expense
of proportionate increases in the wear rate
of the grinding medium.

DISCUSSION

In this section, quantitative descriptions

of the foregoing results are developed and
discussed.
Production of fine material and its dependence on feed rate
The results of Fig. 1 suggest that the inverse of the calculated HMS, D,,,- , is, over
the range of measurements in the present
work, approximately linearly related to the
fraction of -75~pm material in the product.
Also, in a series of tests in which the.feed
rate was varied by a factor of 40, the calculated HMS was found to be linearly dependent on the feed rate as shown in Fig. 2.
These two sets of results may be combined
to yield empirical expressions for p(F) and
n(F), respectively the fraction of fines and
the rate of production of fines as functions
of the feed rate. They are of the form

237

Cl - C2F

P(F) =

1 + C3F

CIF - C@
a(F) = 1 + C3F2

(9)

where the Cs are positive constants. These

constants are related to the parameters A,
B, and d, and b, whose values are given in
Table 2, by the following equations:
l-Ado

Cl =

(10)

Bdo
C2

c3

Ab
Bdo

(11)

_!_

(12)

do

Equations (8) and (9), which are expected to

be valid for F < C1/C2, have been fitted to
the experimental
data shown in Table 1. The
values of the constants thus obtained are
listed in Table 3. The graphs of eqns. (8)
and (9) with these values of the Cs are shown
in Figs. 3 and 4. The curves are clearly excellent descriptions of the experimental
data.
Furthermore
it may be noted from eqn. (8)
that p(F) tends to Cl as F tends to zero.
Since nearly all of the feed material will be
reduced to fines at very low feed rates, it
follows that Ci should be approximately
unity. The values in Table 3 confirm this
expectation.
TABLE
Values

3
of

the parameters in p(F) and n(F)

Parameter

Cl
c2

c3
cl=

l-Ado
Bdo

c2=

-2

Value

though the agreement is generally quite good,

there are small discrepancies.
The discrepancies are simply due to the fact that the
empirical relationships,
eqns. (5) and (6),
are approximations
and that there is some
experimental
scatter. For example, the relationship between D,P-l and p might be more
accurately described by including secondand higher-order terms. Such a procedure
would only render more complex the algebraic treatment to be outlined below, but
not materially influence any subsequent
arguments.
Equation (9) suggests that the rate of
production
of fine material, n(F), will pass
through a maximum. For example, for balls,
with the given values of the Cs, the maximum rate of production
would be about
0.057 tons of -75-pm
material per hour at
a feed rate of 0.28 t/h. At this feed rate, the
percentage of fines in the product would be
about 26%. This effect was not observed in
the present work because the maximum rate
at which feed material could be accepted
by the mill with the present feeding and discharge arrangements was only 0.24 t/h. However, it seems reasonable that the rate of
production
of fines should pass through a
maximum. At low feed rates, the percentage of fines in the product is high but the
rate of production is small because the feed
rate is small. In this region, the rate of production is, as shown by Fig. 4, an increasing
function
of the feed rate. However, the
percentage of fines is a strongly decreasing
function of the feed rate and at high feed
rates (of the order of but less than Cl/C2
t/h), assuming that one could get the material through the mill, the rate of production
of fines will be small. Therefore,
in opencircuit milling, the rate of production
of
fines as a function of the feed rate will pass
through a maximum.

Balls

Cones

1.002
0.75
10.404

0.968
0.56
11.96

0.965

0.916

0.79

0.90

Wear rate and consumption of grinding media

in relation to feed rate
A tonnage parameter r can be defined by
putting

9.26

(13)

Ab

Bdo
C3 = b/do

11.06

Table 3 also shows the values of the Cs

as calculated from eqns. (10) to (12). Al-

where 6M is MO- M, MO being the initial

charge mass and M that after 62 tons of
material have been milled in a time St hours.

238

Equation (13) is essentially

equation because

a time-dependent

6T = F6t

(14)

where F is the average feed rate. The tonnage

parameter is probably a function of the mass
of the grinding charge, but 6M in all of the
tests of the present work was only about 1%
of the charge mass. Hence, r was effectively
constant over the period of a test.
Equations (13) and (14) show that the
consumption
M and the wear rate M are
given by
M=

!!

(15)

(16)
the relationship
being

between

these

quantities

G=FM

where 8-l is a constant

It is now assumed that
finite, one must add to
a term proportional
to
terial milled in time 6 t,

(18)
where F is the average feed rate, and rF is
a parameter that depends on the feed rate.
A first-order representation
of this parameter, which is suggested by the results shown
in Fig. 9, is
?-F = 70 + gF

6M=M;

(17)

Calculated
Calculated

from values of M./@W/6T)

from equatmn (22)

m Table

(1%

where 7. and g are constants.

Hence, A?(F), the wear rate of the grinding
charge expressed as a function of the feed
rate, will be
ti(F)=~

Equation (16) suggests that the wear rate

will be zero if the feed rate is zero. However,
if the supply of new material is stopped while
the mill continues to operate, then the wear
rate of the grinding charge will not suddenly
decrease to zero. It will remain finite because
milling of the hold-up (or of the circulating
load in the case of a mill operating in closed
circuit) will continue. This shows that r is
r(F), i.e., a function of the feed rate. If, when
milling the hold-up, 6M is proportional
to
the mass of the grinding charge and to the
time lit, then

of proportionality.
if the feed rate is
the r.h.s. of eqn. (17)
the amount of mai.e.,

F
$ + ro+gF

and the consumption

M(F)=M

&

+ -

will be
1

(21)

To+@

The continuous curves in Figs: 5 and 7

demonstrate
that eqns. (20) and (21) are in
excellent agreement with the experimental
data when the values for the parameters are
as shown in Table 4.
TABLE 4
Values of the wear parameters for grinding media
under the given milling conditions
Grinding
medium

Balls
Cones

Wear parameter
(Bh)

g
(h)

8400
8070

881
1200

65.6
55.1

Equations (20) and (21) also show that,

under conditions of variable feed rate, the
tonnage parameter is a function of the feed
rate. It is given by
Feed rate. I/h

Feed rate. t/b

Fig. 9. Tonnage parameters for balls and cones as

functions of feed rate.

7(F) = ;F

+ ~

To+@

-1

(22)

239

Graphs of this function for balls and cones

are shown in Fig. 9. The agreement with the
experimental data is good.
Figure 7 and eqn. (20) show that the wear
rate of the grinding media in milling is finite
at any feed rate. It is M/8 at zero feed rate
when the hold-up is being milled, and increases monotonically
to the value of (M/6 +
M/g) at an infinite feed rate. Since the consumption is the wear rate divided by the
feed rate and, since the wear rate is always
non-zero and bounded, it follows that the
consumption
must be a decreasing function
of the feed rate, as shown in Fig. 5.
Consumption and wear rate of grinding media
in relation to fineness of grind and rate of
production of fines
Figure 6 shows that, in open-circuit
milling, increased fineness, as measured by the
percentage of fines in the product, can be
achieved only at the expense of increased
consumption
of the grinding media. The
latter increases in a strongly superlinear
manner when more than 60% fines is required in the product. This behaviour can
be calculated by combining eqns. (8) and
(21) to yield M(p) (the consumption
of
grinding media as a function of the percentage of fines in the product) as follows:
M@) = M

(23)

The graphs of eqn. (23) in Fig. 6 show

that, in this highly non-linear situation, this
expression gives a good account of the production of fines during milling with balls
or cones.
Previous work [4] suggested, on purely
empirical grounds, that an increase in the
production
of fines involves an approximately exponential increase in the consumption
of grinding media. However, a detailed
examination
of eqn. (23) shows that, when
the product contains more than 60% fines,
the consumption
of the grinding media is
even more markedly superlinear than an
exponential relationship (which predicts equal
percentage increases in the consumption
for
equal increments in the percentage of fines).
hquation (23) and Fig. 6 show that, for an
increase in fines from 80 to 85%, the con-

sumption would increase by about 20%,

whereas, for an increase in fines from 90 to
95%, the consumption
would increase by
87%! Somewhat analogous results were obtained recently in batch milling at various
pulp densities by Iwasaki et al. [ 51.
Figure 8 shows that the wear rate of the
grinding media is approximately
linearly
dependent
on the rate of production
of
fines. The empirical behaviour is represented
by the linear least-square fits to the data in
Fig. 8. This simple behaviour can be understood if consideration
is given to a first-order
approximation
to eqn. (9), which expresses
the relationship between the rate of production of fines and the feed rate. The approximation is
K(F) =

ClF
+ C3F

This approximation
can be compared with
eqn. (21), which gives M(F), i.e., the wear
rate, as a function of the feed rate. The latter
relationship is of the form
.

k,J

M(F)=ko+

(24)

1+k2F

where ko, kI, and k, are positive constants.

Apart from an additive constant, this expression is of the same form as the approximation for n(F). Moreover, the ratios C3/Ci
and k2/k1 are roughly of the same order,
and hence it is not surprising that the wear
rate should vary approximately
linearly with
the feed rate, as shown in Fig. 8.
A more complete description requires the
full solution of the quadratic eqn. (9) for F
as a function of 7~.The appropriate solution,
which is consistent with K being zero at zero
feed rate, is
p - (0 - 4C27T)12
F(A) =
2c2

where
-

P=C,

c37r

Substitution
of eqn. (25,) into eqn. (20)
yields an expression for M(n), the wear rate
as a function of the rate of production
of
fines, as follows:
P - (P2 - 4&n)
iTi

M ;

l/2

2c2

+
~

+ g[P

(0

0
2c2

(26)

4C~r)~~l
I

240

This expression is a function only of T. It

contains no adjustable parameters, since all
the constants ro, g, Ci, etc., have already
been determined
(see Tables 2 to 4). The
expression is displayed by the continuous
curves in Fig. 8, which are in detailed agreement with the measured wear rates of balls
and of cones when plotted as functions of
the measured rates of production of fines.
It would appear that definite relationships
exist between the wear of grinding media,
the fineness of grind and the feed rate. Those
proposed in the present work give good descriptions of the experimental
data obtained
in open circuit milling with balls and with
cones. Since these grinding elements differ
markedly in shape, the proposed relationships are expected to be valid for all types
of grinding media irrespective of their shape.

ore, and decreases with increasing feed

rate.
(5) The formulation of a tonnage parameter as a function of the feed rate yielded
expressions that accurately describe the experimental data concerning the wear rate
and consumption
of the grinding media in
relation to the feed rate and the fraction of
fine material in the product.
(6) The relationship
between the wear
rate of grinding media and the rate of production of fines in the product was found to be
linear. This apparently
simple relationship
confirms a deep-seated but hitherto unproven
conviction that the rate of creation of new
surface area in a mill product should be
simply and directly related to the wear rate
of the grinding charge.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONCLUSIONS

This study of the effects of changes in the

feed rate of ore to the mill on the fineness
of grind and on the wear of the grinding
media leads to the following conclusions.
(1) Over a wide range of values, linear
relationships were found between the feed
rate of ore to the mill and the calculated
harmonic mean size, and between the percentage of fines in the mill product and the
reciprocal of the calculated, harmonic mean
size.
(2) The results indicated in (1) above show
that the rate of production of fines increases
fairly rapidly with increase in the feed rate,
and finally passes through a maximum. With
metallic grinding media, the maximum occurs at a feed rate higher than that at which
the experimental
mill can operate.
(3) For equal masses of the grinding
charge, non-spherical media produce a somewhat coarser grind, as shown by the graphs
of harmonic mean size and the percentage
of fines versus the feed rate.
(4) The consumption
of the grinding
media, expressed as the loss in mass of the
grinding charge per unit mass of ore milled,
is greatly dependent on the feed rate of the

This paper is published by permission of

the Council for Mineral Technology
(Mintek). We are grateful to Dr D. Boydell for
discussion, and to Dr P. T. Wedepohl for discussions and criticism. Thanks are due to
Mr. F. S. Cornelius for his sustained effort
and support during the course of the test
work, and to Mr. P. Ellis for electron microscopy of samples of the milled products.

REFERENCES
D. D. Howat, An Assessment of the Merits of
Various Types of Balls in the Milling of Ores,
Randburg, Council for Mineral Technology,
Report Ml17 (1983).
G. G. Jacox and J. C. Farge, Proc. 18th Annual
Conference of Metallurgists, Sudbury, Ont.,
Aug. 1979, pp. 19 - 23.
G. Herdan, Small Particle Statistics: An Account
of Statistical Methods for the Investigation of
Finely Divided Materials, Butterworths, London,
1960, pp. 33, 35.
D. D. Howat and L. A. Vermeulen, The Performance and Wear Characteristics of Grinding
Media as Affected by Metallurgical and Dimensional Factors, Randburg, Council for Mineral
Technology, Report M243 (1986).
I. Iwasaki, S. C. Reimer and J. N. Orlich, Miner.
and Metall. Process. (1985) 192 - 195.