Milling facility

Type of grinding mill

Ball Mill

Advantages
Used in secondary closed circuit
Robust and simple
Small size
Low energy consumption

Disadvantages
High risk of over grinding
primary feed grinding size up to
15mm
High order of crushers needed

Rod Mill

Coarse grinding with top size

Low plant capacity with < 200t/h
Primary feed grinding size up to
control without classification
Small size
50mm
Low energy consumption
High order of crushers needed
Narrow particle size distribution

Autogeneous Mill

Coarse grinding up to 400mm

feed size
High capacity (short retention
time)
Low order of crushers needed

Semi-Autogeneous Mill

Coarse grinding up to 400mm

Large size
High capital cost
feed size
high
Higher capacity than autogeneous Relatively
consumption
mill (short retention time)
Less sensitive to feed composition
Consists of grinding media (steel
grinding ball)
Low order of crushers needed

Sensitive to feed composition

Inconsistence grinding behavior
Limited to certain ores with
specific harness and abrasiveness
Large size
High energy consumption

energy

Justification
SAG mill is chosen as the primary
mill over the other tumbling
equipments due to its features of
large capacity ores handling,
fulfill the criteria of processing
coarse ore size of 20000 m and
equipped with grinding media to
achieve a consistence and finer
ores. Over- grinding is prevented
due to its capability to process
ores at short retention time.

Assumptions
Closed circuit design with wet grinding is employed in the process to handle high load capacity of ores. It is expected to achieve low power
consumption per ton of product, ensures product size required fulfilled and eliminate the possibility of over-grinding of ores with the use of
classifier like hydrocyclones.
Combination of SAG mill and ball mill are chosen as the design circuit in the aim to achieve low operating cost and maximize the performance.
Preliminary sizing for ball mill and sag mill procedure

Step 1: E= 10 x Wi

1
1

)
P 80 F 80

Step 2: Determination of Wic, WiBM, WiRM with given size range from
online resources
Step 3: Ebm = 10 x Wic

1
1

2100 10000

1
1

)
10000 F 80 + [10 x WiRM

+ 10 x WiBM

1
1

)
P80 2100 x EF5BM ]

x EF4BM

1+
EF4BM =

(0.907 x Wi BM 7)
F 80
(
1)
0.5
F 80
14.33
(
)
4000(
)
P 80
WiBM

Step 4: Etotal = 1.15 x E

Step 5: ESAG = [ 10 x Wic

1
1

)
Pc F 80 + 10 x Wic

Notation
E = Specific energy consumption, kWh/tonnes
Wi = work index of bauxite ore
P80= 80% passing size of the feed,

F80= 80% passing size of the product,

Wic = Crushing work index

WiBM = Ball mill work index
WiRM = Rod mill work index
EF5BM = Factor for ball milling (only applicable for P80 < 75 m )
EF4BM = Factor for ball milling
Etotal= Total energy consumption of SAG and ball mill circuit
Pc= primary crusher product size
PR= rod mill product size
T80= Synthetic transfer size between the SAG mill and ball mill

1
1

)
P R Pc x EF4RM + 10 x Wic

EF5 ] x 1.25 - 10 x Wic

1+
EF4RM =

1
1

Pc F 80

( 1Pc F180 )
)

x EF4BM x

x EF4BM x EF5

(0.907 x Wi BM 7)
F 80
(
1)
0.5
F 80
14.33
(
)
16000(
)
P 80
Wi BM

Step 6: Ebm = Etotal - ESAG

Step 7: Total SAG Motor Power= (ESAG x tonnes/hour)/0.985/0.90
Step 8: Total Ball Mill Motor Power = (EBM x tonnes/hour)/0.985/0.94
Step 9: Determination of effective grinding length, EGL
Step 10: Estimation of dimension from vendor catalogue
Information given and calculated value

Result from vendor catalogue

Data given and additional info

Bauxite bond index, Wi = 14
Bauxite F80 = 20000 m; P80 = 300 m
Typical size ranges for bond work index tests
Wic: 100000 10000 m (F80-P80)
WiRM: 10000 2100 m (F80-P80)
WiBM: 2100 -100 m (F80-P80)
Calculated value
E = 7.09 kWh/t
Wic = 103.733
WiRM = 59.999
WiBM = 9.073
EF4BM = 1.13
EF4RM = 1.05
Etotal = 38.74 kWh/t
ESAG= 33.78 kWh/t
Ebm = 4.96 kWh/t
Total SAG mill motor mill = 22MW
Total Ball mill motor power = 3MW
EGL = 22.24ft

Hydrocyclone
Purposes and justifications

SAG mill: 23MW motor output power (ring motor drive) ,

42ft x 24ft (D x L)
Ball mill: 3.356 MW motor output power, 16.5ft x 27ft (D x L)

Sizing
Assumptions
The overflow of particles are assumed to be 80% passing

Type of grinding mill Advantages

Ball Mill
Used in secondary
closed circuit
Robust and simple

Rod Mill

Disadvantages
High risk of over
grinding
primary feed grinding
size up to 15mm

Coarse grinding with Low plant capacity

top size control
with < 200t/h

Justification

Preliminary Sizing

Result

without
classification

Primary feed
grinding size up to
50mm

Autogeneous Mill

Coarse grinding up to Sensitive to feed

400mm feed size
composition
High capacity

Semi-Autogeneous
Mill

Coarse grinding up to
400mm feed size
Higher capacity than
autogeneous mill
Less sensitive to feed
composition (czm)

Justification