Breakage parameters of chromite and simulation of the product-size distributions

Abstract

The breakage parameters of a run of mine chromite for dry and wet ball milling were obtained by means of standard S and B test methods. This method requires a small amount of power for grinding for different length of time in a laboratory ball mill to obtain the breakage parameters. The single sized fraction of a - 425 + 250 ?m feed of material obtained from our laboratories was ground for different lengths of time in a laboratory ball mill. The specific rate of breakage, (Si), for dry milling was determined to be 0.28 min-1, while the Si value for wet grinding was 0.56 min-1. The cumulative breakage-distribution function (Bij) values (?{symbol}, ? and ?) obtained were the same for dry and wet ball milling. The, ? and ? values were 0.75, 1.14 and 7.9, respectively. The simulation of the product-size distributions using a "Two-Stage Ball-Mill Circuit Simulator: PSUSIM" was performed by making use of the obtained S and B parameters. The simulated results were in good agreement with the experimental results. © 2000 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.