| Grant number: | 15/11739-2 |
| Support type: | Regular Research Grants |
| Duration: | March 01, 2016 - May 31, 2018 |
| Field of knowledge: | Engineering - Mining Engineering |
| Principal Investigator: | Maurício Guimarães Bergerman |
| Grantee: | Maurício Guimarães Bergerman |
| Home Institution: | Escola Politécnica (EP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil |
| Assoc. researchers: | Homero Delboni Junior |
Abstract
In the field of secondary grinding or regrinding, the concern about energy efficiency is of great importance. As a general rule, the specific consumption in this stage is higher than that in the primary grinding stage. Moreover, it has been noticed a trend toward finer grinding size in new metal ore processing projects, which results in increasing expenditures in this stage in terms of both implementation and operating costs. In Brazil, new projects that include a regrinding stage have required regrinding size around 40 to 20 µm. In such a context, tubular ball mills, which are suitable for primary grinding, show decreasing energy efficiency when it comes to products below 50 µm. In order to properly assess the best technologies available for such regrinding applications, this work will propose a low cost open methodology for proper grinding circuit selection and sizing. In a first moment, it will be investigated alternatives to the conventional tubular ball mill, with particular focus on the vertical stirred mills. Samples will be taken from at least five grind mill plants operating in Brazil in order to determine the industrial-scale performance of tubular and vertical mills. A new laboratory testing method will be developed using a small mass of ore to simulate the power consumption and product size distribution in industrial vertical mills. In addition, laboratory tests will be carried out using other regrinding mill technologies with an aim to determine which ones offer the best energy saving potential. (AU)