Selective Comminution for Improved Liberation and Reduced Energy Usage

粉碎的目的是将矿物释放成离散的颗粒，以便在随后的矿物分离过程中进行升级。粉碎是能源密集型的，而且是非选择性的。加拿大矿业创新理事会已将能源效率确定为矿业研究的关键战略领域。例如，在不列颠哥伦比亚省等省，该省约5%的总发电量用于采矿作业。在这些能量中，粉碎使用了大约70%。因此，将导致更节能的粉碎的研究可以对提高采矿系统的能源效率产生最大的影响。另一个问题是，粉碎不是有选择性的--目标是释放出有价值的矿物颗粒，以便将它们分离出来。研磨会破坏所有矿物，通常会导致软矿物成分的过度研磨，产生难以分离的颗粒，并在研磨由有价值的矿物和脉石组成的较硬颗粒的情况下进行，这会污染产品或导致回收率较低。

The goal of comminution is to liberate minerals into discrete particles so that they may be upgraded during subsequent mineral separation processes. Comminution is energy-intensive and non-selective. The Canadian Mining Innovation Council has identified energy efficiency as a key strategic area for mining research. As an example, in provinces such as British Columbia, about 5% of the total electrical energy generated in the province is used by mining operations. Of this energy, comminution uses about 70%. Therefore research that will lead to more energy efficient comminution can have the greatest impact toward improving the energy efficiency of a mining system. Another issue is that comminution is not selective - the goal is to liberate the valuable mineral particles so that they can be separated. Grinding breaks all minerals and often leads to over grinding of soft mineral constituents, creating particles that are difficult to separate and under grinding of harder particles that are composed of valuable minerals and gangue that contaminate the product or lead to poor recoveries.