Investigation of the effects of different grinding mechanisms on component behavior

In recent years, the studies on the use of stirred mills, their performance and the development of model structures of stirred mills has been increasing as well as the studies on the monitoring of mineral behavior throughout the enrichment facilities. Thus, this makes it necessary to investigate the effect of the grinding process to be carried out in the stirred mill on the size-based mineral distribution of the product and its comparison with other grinding systems that using different grinding mechanisms. In this study, which aims to eliminate this deficiency in the literature with its original structure; grinding studies were carried out on different proportions of clinker and calcite, magnetite minerals and copper ore in a dry-operated stirred mill. After that the size-based mineral distribution of the products was determined, then the mineral effects were discussed and the results were compared with the results in the ball mill which the same studies are conducted. It has been revealed that the different grinding mechanisms of the mills and different grindability properties of the components exhibit different behaviors in the size-based mineral distribution of the products. Clinker and magnetite materials, which are harder than calcite, concentrated in the coarser fractions in their mixtures with calcite while calcite with high grindability compared to the others is concentrated in finer fractions. And also, it has been determined that the calcite is ground better in the mixture compared to the pure calcite grinding. In addition, by calculating the breakage rates of the components; it was determined that the breakage rates of calcite were higher than the breakage rates of others at all grinding times. Also, it was determined that grinding with mixtures of magnetite and clinker components, which are relatively hard on the Mohs scale contributed to the grinding of calcite. The fractional distributions of copper ores were investigated in the evaluations of the MLA studies carried out on the products obtained by grinding copper samples in a stirred and ball mill. It is seen that the pyrite distribution varied depending on the grinding time in both mills, while chalcopyrite, sphalerite and galena minerals were found to show similar distribution values in itselfs. In addition, it was determined that the stirred mill technology produced higher liberated mineral values compared to the ball mill, regardless of the mineral type.