APPLICATIONS OF A NEW MODEL-BASED METHOD OF BALL MILL SIMULATION AND DESIGN

The multi-segment ball mill model developed by Whiten and Kavetsky has been used together with an extensive range of data from operating mills to establish the parameters of a new ball mill model suitable for simulation and design of coarse grinding ball mills (i.e. mills containing some plus 2mm particles in the mill discharge). The model incorporates an ore-specific breakage function varying with mill diameter, and specific rates of breakage in each size fraction varying with mill diameter, percentage of critical speed and top ball size. The model obtained in this way is capable of simulating the performance of a coarse grinding ball mill of a given diameter, ball size and mill speed, operating on a given ore. The only additional information required for a simulation is the ore breakage characteristics determined by a laboratory pendulum breakage test on a sample of the ore particles. These characteristics may also be estimated from the Bond Work Index of the ore. © 1990.