Comminution process wear

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The ultimate goal of the P9 series of research projects and for that matter of any research project in mineral processing is the reduced operating cost. In comminution processes, this cost is measured in financial terms as a function of energy and steel consumption.  In the present project, wear of different comminution processes will be investigated with a particular emphasis on wear of tumbling (ball, AG/SAG, rod) mill steel media and liners with the goal to develop lab tests and techniques that will contribute to predict and then to minimise wear in these processes.  It should be noted that wear in tumbling mill can represent up to half of grinding cost in a given operation. Steel media and liner wear investigations will use and further refine the test equipment built. The wear of other processes (HPGR, stirred mills, regrind) will be also studied as well as the development of a coupled abrasion-corrosion model. Cost of process wear in all of these cases will be measured as a function of energy and steel consumed. Specifically, the project objectives are (i) to complete steel media wear model validation, (ii) to define, develop and validate a liner wear model, (iii) to explore wear models for other comminution processes (HPGR, regrind & stirred mills) and (iv) to explore a coupled abrasion-corrosion steel media wear model. The value and benefit of this project can be measured not only in economic terms as contributing to reducing operating cost with respect to comminution process wear but also in environmental and scientific terms. In economic terms, better wear prediction will lead to wear cost minimisation in comminution processes both in Greenfield and actual mineral process operations.  In environmental terms, operating costs as a function of energy and wear can be expressed in equivalent tonnes of CO2 emissions as illustrated by the Leinster nickel operations example. Therefore, contributing to lower comminution wear costs can impact on the Kyoto footprint and contribute in the Canadian context to meeting our Kyoto commitment. In scientific terms, this project contributes to a better understanding of wear mechanisms in an applied context as well as contributes increasing the knowledge base in wear.