Toward the improvement of primary grinding productivity and energy consumption efficiency. Part 1: Investigation of the feed ore size effects

Abstract This paper summarizes part of the research into the study of the full and semi-autogenous grinding mills toward the improvement of productivity and energy consumption. While the feed ore size effect on SAG/FAG mill performance is the main subject of this paper, the 2D imaging vision system for feed ore size analyses is described. The ability of the system to produce on-line reliable results is illustrated. Particular attention is paid to the development and extraction of valuable size indicators with regards to the grinding mill mechanisms and energy consumption aspect. Finally, the investigation of the feed size effects at three grinding mills is discussed while extensive data are intensively processed in order to extract significant correlation between the primary grinding performance and some developed size indicators.