Improving operational continuity of rod mills

Magn Torres, M.Sc.

Process Engineer

Alfonso Paredes
Head - Conventional Grinding Unit CODELCO Chile Divisin Chuquicamata

Introduction
A0 Concentrator at Chuquicamata
o o o o Almost 60 years of operational history. 13 Rod Mills (10x14 ft, 597 kW) Ore composed mainly by primary sulphides. Decreased throughput due to an increase of rod ejection events.

Why do the rods are ejected?

Swelling of the mill load (Rowland Jr, 2002)
o Particle size increases. o Tangled, broken and bent rods evacuated. o Excessive load of grinding media. are not

Are we able to predict these events?

Residence Time
Quotient between the amount of dry ore inside the mill and the ore mass flow.
D L JV 1 4
2

CP

GS

First key parameter: Percentage of rod filling volume, Jv.

Degree of Rod Packing,

Second key parameter

Sphere packing approach in a 2D lattice.

Impact Energy of the Rods

Potential Energy (third key parameter)
ER M R hR g

Maximum height reached by the rod when lifted.

hR D 0.5sen 0.5 JV 0.125 g
2

D 2 cos 2

Operational Number
Rm PRM ER

PRM = Power drawn by rod mill (kW) = Residence Time (min)

ER = Impact energy of the rod (kW min)

Operational Number

For values below 6000, the probability of rod ejection is 5%.

Results
Rod Mill
Section Effective Throughput, t/d Section Operational Number (average) Rod Ejections Events Plant Effective Throughput, t/d Throughput Difference, %

A
6261 6045 0 5622 11.4

B
6090 8984 0 5506 10.6

C
6619 5577 0 5860 12.9

D
6066 7592 0 5663 7.1

E
6576 7016 0 6018 9.3

Rod mills A, B, C and D; were operating at lower filling levels. Rod mill E, was loaded with rods of higher diameter.

Final Remarks
Critical Parameters:
o Rod filling volume o Grade of rod packing o Impact energy

Keep a tight control, calculate Rm. Throughput increased by 10.3% (average)

Thank you for your attention