MT221: 2.

0 Communition in General

2.1 Defintion

Communition is simply the reduction of particle size. In the widest sense it might be regarded as:

Those mechanical operations such as turning, drilling, saving, carving or planning in which objects
are individually changed in shape, usually to previously determined and closely controlled
dimensions.

The scope presented in this document will be confined to the means whereby communition may be
brought about under circumstances in which the materials is reduced in size, en masse. Under
such conditions usually little control of the shape of the product is possible and the size of the
product is normally expressible only in statistical terms.

Comminution equipment is used in preparation of human or animal foodstuffs e.g

 In flour milling
 In the comminution of fibrous or plastic materials
 Size reduction in the field of agriculture

However the apparatus and techniques discussed are mainly those which are concerned with the
preparation of brittle materials for chemical and physical reactions.

Concurrent to the study of comminution equipment, the discussion on auxillary equipment has
been confined to the subject of those means of particle size classification which form an integral
part of closed circuit milling.

They are at least five techniques of comminution concerned with size reduction of brittle materials
or substances:

i. Explosive shattering
ii. Electrohydraulic crushing
iii. Ultrasonics
iv. Mechanical means
v. Jet or fluid energy mills

Of the above techniques of communition , (iv) form the main subject matter for the purpose of
illustrating principles in comminution. The scope of this document will be in terms of

 Their basic mechanism of which they act

 Their range of application and the characteristics of machinery

The other techniques are not critical to the discussion on mineral beneficiation

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In so far as size reduction of brittle materials is concerned, the purposes of comminution can be
enemurated as below:

2.2 Purposes of Comminution

The purposes of comminution include the following

 To produce material having a size range which is convenient for transportation

and storage and suitable for use with no further processing except screening

 To liberate minerals disseminated in basic rock in order to free their

concretions from gangue and enable subsequent separation processes be
efficient

 To expose mineral values to chemical attack e.g during leaching

 To produce a given surface area e.g for improved reaction time.

2.3 Objective of Size Reduction in Mineral Processing

The objective of size reduction in mineral processing is the liberation of individual mineral particles.
However size reduction will be accompanied by the appearance of deleterious phenomena either
overgrinding (over production of fines) or undergrinding ( presence of high proportion of coarse
particles).Undergrinding of ores leads to an increase of metal losses in the larger particle sizes
( increase in tailings grade). On the other hand overgrinding will lead to the following:

 Losses of the finer sizes (10-5µm) due to uneffective particle - bubble catch
up brought about by slime coating around the air bubble.

 Slime floatability and the non – selective mechanical entrainment in the froth
zone during flotation with water.

 Excess reagent consumption due to the presence of slimes

 The deleterious effect of overproduction of fines emerges not only during

flotation but also in the subsequent operations of thickening, filtration and
drying of concentrates and their transport in the metallurgical operations.

 Excess energy consumption during metal extraction processes

It is important therefore to organize the size reduction of ore to a size needed for efficient
concentration of values. The degree of size reduction required is different for each ore. It is
determined mainly by the characteristics of the the ore ( interlocking, dissemination) and by
economic considerations.

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In view of the above size reduction in mineral processing is nearly always done in stages, usually
using different machines for each stage. This assists in eliminating the effects of either
overgrinding or undergrounding, than attempting to achieve the desired product size in a single
operation

2.4 Mechanical Means of Size Reduction

Size reduction by mechanical means can be classified into two; crushing and grinding. These are
defined as follows:

Crushing: Defined as the operations required to reduce run-off-mine ore to the size, suitable for
feed to grinding mills

Grinding: Defined as the operations, required to reduce the final crushed product to the optimum
size (liberation size) required in the mineral separation processes chosen (e.g conacentration)

Crushing and grinding are carried out in stages

Crushing Primary Coarse From R.O.M to 15cm

Secondary intermediate From 15cm to 2.5-5cm
Tertiary fine From 5cm to 1-0.5cm

Grinding Primary
Secondary

2.4 Types of Comminution Circuits

Closed and Open circuits

In most cases, the operating stages are all in closed circuit i.e. the product is sized ( on a screen
or other sizing device) whereafter the portion which is sufficiently fine ( the undersize) passes on to
the next stage and the portion which is coarse ( the oversize) which is still too coarse is returned to
the breaker. In open circuit operation the material passes straight through the breaker and the
entire product passes on to the next stage. As long as the feed does not alter drastically ( size,
hardness etc) the tonnage of material returning to the breaker ( the circulating load) will be fairly
constant.

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Closed circuit Operation

Circulating Load

Feed

Oversize
Breaker

Screen
Undersize

Fig 1.0 : Schematics Diagram of a Closed Circuit Operation

Feed
1st Breaker 2nd Breaker

Product

Fig 2.0: Schematic Diagram of an Open Circuit Operation

Circulating Loads (CL) in closed circuit operation are normally expressed as a percentage of the
new feed coming in. In most crushing operations circulating loads are relatively small ( < 100%). In
modern grinding practice, however, circulating loads are often very high (250 – 700%).

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2.5 Storage Bins

Flow of material from ore reception through various equipment in a CHRUSHING SEQUENCE may
be disrupted due to a number of reasons which include the following:

 Breakdown of equipment
 Breakdown of delivery system
 Planned maintenance in the crushing circuit
 When there are no ORE deliveries e.g weekend, nightshifts etc

Apart from ore bins crushing circuits include larger bins of several thousand tonnes capacity.
Capacity of storage bins depend upon the size of the plant. Small plants may not have storage bins
while bigger plants normally have. For instance if there is a breakdown of secondary crusher, the
primary crusher product may be diverted to storage bins. If for one reason or the other the primary
crusher is down, ore can be withdrawn from the storage bin as feed to secondary crushers.
Therefore storage bins or BUNKERS provide emergence storage capacity.

2.6 Ore Bins for Blending

Having several ore bins for reception of different ores will provide facility for blending. For example
Nkana concentrator receives ores from different sources. It is normally blended to produce a
consistent feed to the plant.

2.7 Metal Detectors

Secondary crushers, which have a relatively small discharge opening, should be protected against
large pieces of “tramp” metal (e.g steel liner plates, hammer head setc) which can jam the crusher,
hence resulting in loss of production time and damaged equipment . This done by positioning a
magnet or a magnet pulley or better still, a metal detector in the conveyor system between the
primary and secondary crushers.

2.8 Feeding Arrangement

Seconadary and tertiary crushers are normally fed from an ore bin, which ensures uninterrupted
feed to the crusher while feed into the bin can be intermittent. Primary jaw crushers are usually
preceded by ore bins as well. Such bins normally have capacity of no more than several hundred
tones (surge capacity)

Ore is drawn from the bins using feeders to regulate feed to crushers. Conveyor systems and
chutes transport the ore between various stages. The material from the bins may be screened on a
double or triple deck screen to produce material suitable for feed to secondary and tertiary
crushers.

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 Feed into the ore bin
can be intermittent

Uninterrupted feed
Ore Bin

Primary Crushers
Tripple Deck
Screen Secondary Crushers

Tertiary crushers

Grinding Mills

Fig 3.0: Schematic layout of Crushing Circuit with Multi feed to Secondary Crushers