MANAGEMENT BRIEF ON ULTRA FINE GRINDING

(UFG)
Ultra fine grinding has been gaining popularity since its industrial roll out in the late
1990s. At present, there are predominantly two types of mills which carry out this
function, namely:

The horizontally stirred mill, and

The vertically stirred mill

These mills are shown in Figures 1 and 2.

Figure 1: The horizontally-stirred, ISA mill

Figure 2: The vertically-stirred Deswik mill

1

Theory of operation:
In recent years, the following formula has been proven for the energy used in
grinding:
Motor power = Power required to turn the mill and load + Power required to break the rock

From the above formula, it is evident that if less power is used to tumble the mill and
charge, more power will be available to break rock. IT IS ON THIS PRINCIPLE
THAT STIRRED MILLS WORK. As a result, the power intensity is the greatest, as
shown in Table 1.
The principle of operation of an ultra fine grinding mill is shown in Figure 3.
Table 1: Typical power intensities for various mills
Type of mill

Power Intensity (kWm3)

Autogenous mill
Ball mill
Regrind ball mill
Tower mill
Stirred mill

18
21
19
42
280

Figure 3: Principle of operation of an ultra fine grinding mill

Benefits:
1. The ability to use smaller media (3.5mm maximum) is probably the dominant
impact on grinding efficiency. Smaller grinding media dramatically increases
the grinding surface area and the number of grinding events, essential to
efficiently grind finer particles.

2. Media consumption is approximately 10% that of a comparable ball mill.

3. Very often, ceramic beads are used as grinding media. Coarse sand and slag
have also been successfully used, with immense cost savings.
4. Fine grinding prevents passivation. This is of significant impact in gold
cyanidation. For example, a 30m particle could have a 2-3m rim. If ground
down to 9m, that rim will disintegrate, or significantly diminished. In so doing,
the gold particle will be exposed to the sodium cyanide lixiviant.
5. Fine grinding mills do not need cyclones for classification. These mills classify
internally using the centrifugal product separator. This produces a sharper cut
than cyclones, Figure 4.

Figure 4: Product from UFG showing sharper cut and lack of fines
6. The high energy intensity creates a highly stressed surface on the ore
particle, thus reducing the crystalline nature to that of amorphous phase.
7. Unlike conventional milling, the size distribution of stirred mills sharpens with
additional grinding. This unique behaviour is because:
a. There is no short circuiting. Particles have to pass through 8
consecutive grinding chambers, and then pass the centripetal field of
the product separator, before leaving the mill, Figure 5.
b. The low volume/high intensity means a short average residence time in
the mill (typically 90 seconds). So particles can travel through 8
grinding chambers and the product separator in 90 seconds. As a
result, fines will exit the mill and coarse particles will be retained,
Figures 3 and 5

Figure 5: Internal grinding disks, chambers and product separator

8. A horizontal designed mill is claimed to be superior for plug flow.
9. Fine grinding improves both kinetics and thermodynamics of leaching. The
high surface area of fine particles gives high leaching rates at relatively low
temperature and pressure. Fine grinding also reduces the activation energy
required to leach minerals. This phenomenon is exploited in the Albion
process used to leach refractory gold.
10. Inert grinding media produces clean, polished mineral surfaces that provide
improved downstream performance.
11. There is no need to dump the media on mill start up, like some tower mills.
12. A mill can be easily turned down by simply reducing the grinding media load.
This avoids overgrinding during periods of low tonnage.
13. Mill availability is high, usually in excess of 96%, compared to about 92% for
ball mills.

Ramoutar (Ken) Seecharran

Senior Group Metallurgist