5
Comminution
Introduction
Because most minerals are finely disseminated and
intimately associated with the gangue, they must be
initially “unlocked” or “liberated” before separation
can be undertaken. This is achieved by comminu-
tion in which the particle size of the ore is progres-
sively reduced until the clean particles of mineral
can be separated by such methods as are available.
Comminution in its earliest stages is carried out in
order to make the freshly excavated material easier
to handle by scrapers, conveyors, and ore carriers,
and in the case of quarry products to produce mate-
rial of controlled particle size.
Explosives are used in mining to remove
ores from their natural beds, and blasting can
be regarded as the first stage in comminution.
Comminution in the mineral processing plant, or
“mill”, takes place as a sequence of crushing and
grinding processes. Crushing reduces the particle
size of run-of-mine ore to such a level that grinding
can be carried out until the mineral and gangue are
substantially produced as separate particles.
Crushing is accomplished by compression of the
ore against rigid surfaces, or by impact against
surfaces in a rigidly constrained motion path. This
is contrasted with grinding which is accomplished
by abrasion and impact of the ore by the free
motion of unconnected media such as rods, balls,
or pebbles.
Crushing is usually a dry process, and is
performed in several stages, reduction ratios being
small, ranging from three to six in each stage. The
reduction ratio of a crushing stage can be defined
as the ratio of maximum particle size entering
to maximum particle size leaving the crusher,
although other definitions are sometimes used.
Tumbling mills with either steel rods or balls,
or sized ore as the grinding media, are used in
the last stages of comminution. Grinding is usually
performed “wet” to provide a slurry feed to the
concentration process, although dry grinding has
limited applications. There is an overlapping size
area where it is possible to crush or grind the ore.
From a number of case studies, it appears that at the
fine end of crushing operations equivalent reduc-
tion can be achieved for roughly half the energy
and costs required by tumbling mills (Flavel, 1978).
Stirred mills are now commonly used in mineral
processing, though they have been present in other
industries for many years (Stehr and Schwedes,
1983). They represent the broad category of mills
which use a stirrer to provide motion to the steel,
ceramic, or rock media. Both vertical and horizontal
configurations exist, and since they can operate
with smaller media sizes, they are far more suit-
able for fine grinding applications than ball mills.
Stirred mills are claimed to be more energy effi-
cient (by up to 50%) than conventional ball mills
(Stief et al., 1987). This is thought to be the result
of having a narrower range of applied energy.
A relatively new comminution device, the high
pressure grinding rolls (HPGR), utilises compres-
sion breakage of a particle bed, in which energy
efficient inter-particle breakage occurs (Schönert,
1988). The reduction ratio obtained in a single
pass through the HPGR is substantially higher
than that obtained in conventional rolls crushers.
Some evidence has also been reported for down-
stream benefits such as reduced grinding strength
and improved leachability due to microcracking
(Knecht, 1994). The HPGR offers a realistic poten-
tial to markedly reduce the comminution energy
requirements needed by tumbling mills. Reports
have suggested the HPGR to be between 20 and
50% more efficient than conventional crushers and
mills (Esna-Ashari and Kellerwessel, 1988).

Principles of comminution
Most minerals are crystalline materials in which the
atoms are regularly arranged in three-dimensional
arrays. The configuration of atoms is determined by
the size and types of physical and chemical bonds
holding them together. In the crystalline lattice of
minerals, these inter-atomic bonds are effective only
over small distances, and can be broken if extended
by a tensile stress. Such stresses may be generated by
tensile or compressive loading (Figure 5.1).
Figure 5.1 Strain of a crystal lattice resulting from
tensile or compressive stresses
Even when rocks are uniformly loaded, the
internal stresses are not evenly distributed, as the
rock consists of a variety of minerals dispersed as
grains of various sizes. The distribution of stress
depends upon the mechanical properties of the indi-
vidual minerals, but more importantly upon the
presence of cracks or flaws in the matrix, which
act as sites for stress concentration (Figure 5.2).
It has been shown (Inglis, 1913) that the increase
in stress at such a site is proportional to the square
root of the crack length perpendicular to the stress
Figure 5.2 Stress concentration at a crack tip
Comminution 109
direction. Therefore, there is a critical value for
the crack length at any particular level of stress at
which the increased stress level at the crack tip is
sufficient to break the atomic bond at that point.
Such rupture of the bond will increase the crack
length, thus increasing the stress concentration and
causing a rapid propagation of the crack through
the matrix, thus causing fracture.
Although the theories of comminution assume
that the material is brittle, crystals can, in fact, store
energy without breaking, and release this energy
when the stress is removed. Such behaviour is
known as elastic. When fracture does occur, some
of the stored energy is transformed into free surface
energy, which is the potential energy of atoms at
the newly produced surfaces. Due to this increase
in surface energy, newly formed surfaces are often
more chemically active, and are more amenable
to the action of flotation reagents, etc., as well as
oxidising more readily.
Griffith (1921) showed that materials fail by
crack propagation when this is energetically
feasible, i.e. when the energy released by relaxing
the strain energy is greater than the energy of the
new surface produced. Brittle materials relieve the
strain energy mainly by crack propagation, whereas
“tough” materials can relax strain energy without
crack propagation by the mechanism of plastic
flow, where the atoms or molecules slide over each
other and energy is consumed in distorting the
shape of the material. Crack propagation can also
be inhibited by encounters with other cracks or
by meeting crystal boundaries. Fine-grained rocks,
such as taconites, are therefore usually tougher than
coarse-grained rocks.
The energy required for comminution is reduced
in the presence of water, and can be further
reduced by chemical additives which adsorb onto
the solid (Hartley et al., 1978). This may be due
to the lowering of the surface energy on adsorption
providing that the surfactant can penetrate into a
crack and reduce the bond strength at the crack tip
before rupture.
Real particles are irregularly shaped, and loading
is not uniform but is achieved through points,
or small areas, of contact. Breakage is achieved
mainly by crushing, impact, and attrition, and all
three modes of fracture (compressive, tensile, and
shear) can be discerned depending on the rock
mechanics and the type of loading.
110 Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology
When an irregular particle is broken by compres-
sion, or crushing, the products fall into two distinct
size ranges – coarse particles resulting from the
induced tensile failure, and fines from compres-
sive failure near the points of loading, or by shear
at projections (Figure 5.3). The amount of fines
produced can be reduced by minimising the area
of loading and this is often done in compressive
crushing machines by using corrugated crushing
surfaces (Partridge, 1978).
Figure 5.3 Fracture by crushing
In impact breaking, due to the rapid loading, a
particle experiences a higher average stress while
undergoing strain than is necessary to achieve
simple fracture, and tends to break apart rapidly,
mainly by tensile failure. The products are often
very similar in size and shape.
Attrition (shear failure) produces much fine
material, and may be undesirable depending on
the comminution stage and industry sector. Attri-
tion occurs mainly in practice due to particle–
particle interaction (inter-particle comminution),
which may occur if a crusher is fed too fast,
contacting particles thus increasing the degree of
compressive stress and hence shear failure.
Comminution theory
Comminution theory is concerned with the rela-
tionship between energy input and the particle size
made from a given feed size. Various theories have
been expounded, none of which is entirely satisfac-
tory (Wills and Atkinson, 1993).
The greatest problem lies in the fact that most of
the energy input to a crushing or grinding machine
is absorbed by the machine itself, and only a small
fraction of the total energy is available for breaking
the material. It is to be expected that there is a
relationship between the energy required to break
the material and the new surface produced in the
process, but this relationship can only be made
manifest if the energy consumed in creating new
surface can be separately measured.
In a ball mill, for instance, it has been shown that
less than 1% of the total energy input is available
for actual size reduction, the bulk of the energy
being utilised in the production of heat.
Another factor is that a material which is plastic
will consume energy in changing shape, a shape
which it will retain without creating significant new
surface. All the theories of comminution assume
that the material is brittle, so that no energy
is adsorbed in processes such as elongation or
contraction which is not finally utilised in breakage.
The oldest theory is that of Von Rittinger (1867),
which states that the energy consumed in the
size reduction is proportional to the area of new
surface produced. The surface area of a known
weight of particles of uniform diameter is inversely
proportional to the diameter, hence Rittinger’s law
equates to
 
1 1
E=K − (5.1)
D2 D1
where E is the energy input, D1 is the initial
particle size, D2 is the final particle size, and K is
a constant.
The second theory is that of Kick (1885). He
stated that the work required is proportional to
the reduction in volume of the particles concerned.
Where f is the diameter of the feed particles and
p the diameter of the product particles, the reduc-
tion ratio R is f/p. According to Kick’s law, the
energy required for comminution is proportional to
log R/log 2.
Bond (1952) developed an equation which is
based on the theory that the work input is propor-
tional to the new crack tip length produced in
particle breakage, and equals the work represented
by the product minus that represented by the feed.
In particles of similar shape, the surface area of unit
volume of material is inversely proportional to the
diameter. The crack length in unit volume is consid-
ered to be proportional to one side of that area and
therefore inversely proportional to the square root
of the diameter.
For practical calculations the size in microns
which 80% passes is selected as the criterion of

particle size. The diameter in microns which 80%
of the product passes is designated as P, the size
which 80% of the feed passes is designated as F ,
and the work input in kilowatt hours per short ton
is W . Bond’s third theory equation is
10W 10W
W= √ i− √ i (5.2)
P F
where Wi is the work index. The work index is
the comminution parameter which expresses the
resistance of the material to crushing and grinding;
numerically it is the kilowatt hours per short ton
required to reduce the material from theoretically
infinite feed size to 80% passing 100 m.
Various attempts have been made to show that
the relationships of Rittinger, Kick, and Bond
are interpretations of single general equations.
Hukki (1975) suggests that the relationship between
energy and particle size is a composite form
of the three laws. The probability of breakage
in comminution is high for large particles, and
rapidly diminishes for fine sizes. He shows that
Kick’s law is reasonably accurate in the crushing
range above about 1 cm in diameter; Bond’s theory
applies reasonably in the range of conventional
rod-mill and ball-mill grinding, and Rittinger’s law
applies fairly well in the fine grinding range of
10–1000 m.
On the basis of Hukki’s evaluation, Morrell
(2004) has proposed a modification to Bond’s equa-
tion that sees the exponent of P and F in Equa-
tion 5.2 varying with size as:
KM KM
W = f
Pi − f
Fi
P F
where Mi is the material index related to the
breakage property of the ore and K is a constant
chosen to balance the units of the equation. The
application of the new energy–size relation has
been shown to be valid across the size range
covered by most modern grinding circuits, i.e.
0.1–100 mm.
Grindability
Ore grindability refers to the ease with which mate-
rials can be comminuted, and data from grindability
tests are used to evaluate crushing and grinding
efficiency.
Probably the most widely used parameter to
measure ore grindability is the Bond work index Wi .
Comminution 111
If the breakage characteristics of a material remain
constant over all size ranges, then the calculated
work index would be expected to remain constant
since it expresses the resistance of material to
breakage. However, for most naturally occurring
raw materials, differences exist in the breakage
characteristics depending on particle size, which
can result in variations in the work index. For
instance, when a mineral breaks easily at the
boundaries but individual grains are tough, then
grindability increases with fineness of grind.
Consequently work index values are generally
obtained for some specified grind size which typi-
fies the comminution operation being evaluated
(Magdalinovic, 1989).
Grindability is based upon performance in a care-
fully defined piece of equipment according to a
strict procedure. The Bond standard grindability
test has been described in detail by Deister (1987),
and Levin (1989) has proposed a method for deter-
mining the grindability of fine materials. Table 5.1
lists standard Bond work indices for a selection of
materials.
Table 5.1 Selection of Bond work indices
Material Work index Material Work index
Barite 473 Fluorspar 891
Bauxite 878 Granite 1513
Coal 1300 Graphite 4356
Dolomite 1127 Limestone 1274
Emery 5670 Quartzite 958
Ferro-silicon 1001 Quartz 1357
The standard Bond test is time-consuming, and
a number of methods have been used to obtain
the indices related to the Bond work index. Smith
and Lee (1968) used batch-type grindability tests to
arrive at the work index, and compared their results
with work indices from the standard Bond tests,
which require constant screening out of under-
size material in order to simulate closed-circuit
operation. The batch-type tests compared very
favourably with the standard grindability test data,
the advantage being that less time is required to
determine the work index.
Berry and Bruce (1966) developed a comparative
method of determining the grindability of an ore.
The method requires the use of a reference ore of
known grindability. The reference ore is ground for
112 Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology
a certain time and the power consumption recorded.
An identical weight of the test ore is then ground
for a length of time such that the power consumed
is identical with that of the reference ore. If r is the
reference ore and t the ore under test, then from
Bond’s Equation 5.2.
   
10 10 10 10
Wr = Wt = Wir √ − √ = Wit √ − √
Pr Fr Pt Ft
Therefore
   mills. The SPI test is a batch test, conducted in
10 10 10 10
Wit = Wir √ − √ √ −√ (5.3)
Pr Fr Pt Ft
Reasonable values for the work indices are obtained
by this method as long as the reference and test
ores are ground to about the same product size
distribution.
The low efficiency of grinding equipment in
terms of the energy actually used to break the
ore particles is a common feature of all types of
mill, but there are substantial differences between
various designs. Some machines are constructed in
such a way that much energy is adsorbed in the
component parts and is not available for breaking.
Work indices have been obtained (Lowrison, 1974)
from grindability tests on different sizes of several
types of equipment, using identical feed materials.
The values of work indices obtained are indica-
tions of the efficiencies of the machines. Thus, the
equipment having the highest indices, and hence the
largest energy consumers, are found to be jaw and
gyratory crushers and tumbling mills; intermediate
consumers are impact crushers and vibration mills,
and roll crushers are the smallest consumers. The
smallest consumers of energy are those machines
which apply a steady, continuous, compressive
stress on the material.
Values of operating work indices, Wio , obtained
from specific units can be used to assess the
effect of operating variables, such as mill speeds,
size of grinding media, type of liner, etc. The
higher the value of Wi , the lower is the grinding
efficiency. The Wio can be obtained using Equa-
tion 5.2, by defining W as the specific energy
being used (power draw/new feed rate), F and
P as the actual feed and product 80% passing
sizes, and Wi as the operating work index, Wio .
Once corrected for the particular application and
equipment-related factors, Wio can be compared
on the same basis as grindability test results. This
allows a direct comparison of grinding efficiency.
Ideally Wi should be equal to Wio and grinding
efficiency should be unity. It should be noted that
the value of W is the power applied to the pinion
shaft of the mill. Motor input power thus has to be
converted to power at the mill pinion shaft unless
the motor is coupled direct to the pinion shaft.
While Bond is the best-known grindability test
for rod and ball mills, in recent years the SPI (SAG
Power Index) test has become popular for SAG
a 30.5 cm diameter by 10.2 cm long grinding mill
charged with 5 kg of steel balls. Two kilograms
of sample are crushed to 100% minus 1.9 cm and
80% minus 1.3 cm and placed in the mill. The test
is run with several screening iterations until the
sample is reduced to 80% minus 1.7 mm. The time
required to reach a P80 of 1.7 mm is then converted
to an SAG power index Wsag via the use of a
proprietary transformation (Starkey and Dobby,
1996):
 
SPI n
Wsag = Kfsag 05
T80
The parameters K and n are empirical factors whilst
fsag incorporates a series of calculations (unpub-
lished), which estimate the influence of factors such
as pebble crusher recycle load, ball load, and feed
size distribution. The test is essentially an indicator
of an ore’s breakage response to SAG abrasion
events. As with other batch tests, the test is limited
by the fact that a steady-state mill load is never
reached.
Simulation of comminution processes
and circuits
Simulation of comminution, particularly of
grinding and classification, has received great atten-
tion in recent years, due to the fact that this is by
far the most important unit operation both in terms
of energy consumption and overall plant perfor-
mance. Other aspects of mineral processing have
not received the same intensive research accorded
to grinding.
The Bond work index has little use in simula-
tion, as it does not predict the complete product
size distribution, only the 80% passing size, nor
does it predict the effect of operating variables

on mill circulating load, nor classification perfor-
mance. The complete size distribution is required
in order to simulate the behaviour of the product
in ancillary equipment such as screens and classi-
fiers, and for this reason population balance models
are finding increased usage in the design, optimisa-
tion and control of grinding circuits (Napier-Munn
et al., 1996). One of the most successful applica-
tions of these models has been through the mineral
processing simulator, JKSimMet. A range of case
studies can be found in the literature, covering
both design and optimization of grinding circuits.
Recent examples include Richardson (1990), Lynch
and Morrell (1992), McGhee et al. (2001), and
Dunne et al. (2001). In the model formulation the
particulate assembly that undergoes breakage in a
mill √is divided into several narrow size intervals
(e.g. 2 sieve intervals). The size reduction process
is defined by the matrix equation:
p=K·f
where p represents the product and f the feed
elements. The element pij in the product array is
given by:
pij = Kij · fj
where Kij represents the mass fraction of the parti-
cles in the jth size range which fall in the ith size
range in the product. The product array for n size
ranges can thus be written as:
Product array
The product array is only useful if K is known.
The behaviour of particles in each size interval
is characterised by a size-discretised selection, or
breakage rate function, S, which is the proba-
bility of particles in that size range being selected
for breakage, the remainder passing through the
process unbroken, and a set of size-discretised
breakage functions, B, which give the distribution
of breakage fragments produced by the occurrence
of a primary breakage event in that size interval.
S · f represents the portion of particles which are
broken,
1 − S · f thus representing the unbroken
fraction. K in Equation 5.4 is thus replaced by B,
and the equation for a primary breakage process
becomes:
p = B · S · f +
1 − S · f
The model can be combined with informa-
tion on the distribution of residence times in
Comminution 113
the mill to provide a description of open-circuit
grinding, which can be coupled with information
concerning the classifier to produce closed-circuit
grinding conditions (Napier-Munn et al., 1996).
These models can only realise their full potential,
however, if accurate methods of estimating model
parameters are available for a particular system.
The complexity of the breakage environment in
a tumbling mill precludes the calculation of these
values from first principles, so that successful appli-
cation depends on the development of efficient
techniques for the estimation of model parame-
ters from experimental data. The methods used for
the determination of model parameters have been
compared by Lynch et al. (1986). This comparison
shows that, while all the modern ball mill models
use a similar method for describing the breakage
rate and the breakage distribution functions, each
model has its own way of representing the material
transport mechanisms.
Parameter estimation techniques can be classi-
fied into three broad categories:
(a) Graphical methods which are based mainly on
the grinding of narrow size distributions.
(b) Tracer methods, involving the introduction of
a tracer into one of the size intervals of the
feed, followed by analysis of the product for
the tracer.
(c) Non-linear regression methods, which allow
all parameters to be computed from a min-
imum of experimental data.
Rajamani and Herbst (1984) report the develop-
ment of an algorithm for simultaneous estimation
of selection and breakage functions from exper-
imental data with the use of non-linear regres-
sion, and present the results of estimation for batch
and continuous operations. The estimated param-
eter values show good agreement with parameters
determined by direct experimental methods, and a
computer program based on the algorithm has been
developed. The program is said to be capable of
simulating tumbling mill grinding behaviour for a
specified set of model parameters, and of estimating
the model parameters from experimental data.
Wiseman and Richardson (1991) give a detailed
review of the JKSimMet software package for
simulating mineral processing operations, particu-
larly comminution and classification. It is based on
114 Wills’ Mineral Processing Technology
more than 25 years of modelling and simulation
research and development at the Julius Kruttschnitt
Mineral Research Centre (JKMRC). One of the
main applications for the software package is the
analysis and optimization of the performance of
existing operations using experimental circuit data.
Kojovic and Whiten (1994) outline a procedure for
evaluating the quality of models typical of those
used in mineral processing simulation.
Single particle breakage tests have been used by
a number of researchers to investigate some salient
features of the complex comminution process. A
comparison of the results from single particle
breakage tests with grindability and ball mill
tests is given by Narayanan (1986). Application
of the results from single particle breakage tests
to modelling industrial comminution processes is
described, and the necessity for further research
into single particle breakage tests to develop a
simple but comprehensive technique for estimating
the breakage characteristics of ores is discussed.
Napier-Munn et al. (1996) give a detailed descrip-
tion of the single particle breakage tests developed
at the JKMRC, and their application to the determi-
nation of ore-specific parameters used in comminu-
tion models.
Although selection and breakage functions for
homogeneous materials can be determined on a small
scale and used to predict large-scale performance, it
is more difficult to predict the behaviour of mixtures
of two or more components. Furthermore, the rela-
tionship of material size reduction to subsequent
processing is even more difficult to predict, due
Figure 5.4 Example of ball and particle motion in a slice of a pilot SAG mill using three-dimensional DEM
simulation (Courtesy CSIRO (Dr. Paul Cleary))
to the complexities of mineral release. However,
recent work has focused on the development of
grinding models which include mineral liberation
in the size-reduction description (Choi et al., 1988;
Herbst et al., 1988). In terms of liberation models
for comminution, King (1994) and Gay (2004)
have made the most significant progress. Gay’s
entropy-based multiphase approach models particles
individually rather than using the standard approach
of using composite classes. The development of
such liberation models is essential if true simulation
of integrated plants is ever to be developed.
The Discrete Element Method (DEM) approach
is recognized as an effective tool for modelling (in
both two and three dimensions) the flow of granular
materials in a variety of mining industry applica-
tions, including the motion of grinding media in
a mill. The technique combines detailed physical
models to describe the motion of balls, rocks, and
slurry and attendant breakage of particles as they
are influenced by moving liner/lifters and grates.
The DEM has been used to model many indus-
trial applications over the past decade. Of specific
interest to comminution is the modelling of ball
mills by Mishra and Rajamani (1992, 1994), Inoue
and Okaya (1995), Cleary (1998), Datta et al.
(1999) and SAG mills by Rajamani and Mishra
(1996), Bwalya et al. (2001), Cleary (2001), Nordel
et al. (2001), and Djordjevic (2004, 2005). One of
the features of three-dimensional DEM simulation
is the cutaway images of particle motion in the mill,
an example of which is presented in Figure 5.4 for
a 1.8 m diameter pilot SAG mill.

Figure 5.5 Comparison of three-dimensional DEM with experiment for 75% critical speed, scale model 0.6 m
diameter SAG mill (Courtesy CSIRO (Dr. Paul Cleary))
Modelling of SAG mills by DEM is leading
to improved understanding of charge dynamics,
and offers the potential to improve mill design
and control, and reduce wear. This could lead
to reduced downtime, increased mill efficiency,
increased throughput, lower costs, and lower
energy consumption. DEM has not yet advanced to
the stage of surpassing the predictive capability of
the current milling models, but the improved under-
standing may in the short term lead to improved
mechanistic models and design equations. Coupling
of slurry to particles and adding direct prediction
of particle breakage to the full scale DEM model
are two of the major unresolved issues.
Validation of the predictions made by DEM
is a critical part of understanding the effect of
various modelling assumptions and for separating
more accurate DEM variants from less accurate
ones. Examples of such validations can be found in
Cleary and Hoyer (2000) and Cleary et al. (2001).
Govender et al. (2001) uses an automated three-
dimensional tracking technique utilising biplanar
X-ray filming for providing rigorous validation data
on the motion of particles in an experimental small
scale mill. Figure 5.5 shows a good agreement
between DEM simulation and experiment in terms
of the charge motion for a scale model SAG mill.
Though advances in computing power have
enabled DEM simulations to tackle increasingly
more complex processes, three-dimensional DEM
simulation of large mills with many thousands
of particles can be a time-consuming task. The
speed of computation is determined principally by
two parameters: number of particles involved and
Comminution 115
material properties. Large-scale simulations, with
over 100,000 particles can take weeks for a single
simulation. The computational time step is deter-
mined by the size of the smallest particle present in
the model and material properties (elastic). These
computational demands and lack of detailed exper-
imental verification have limited the value of DEM
techniques in the mining industry. Hence there is
much effort around the world seeking to fill the
vital gap linking computational results to rigorous
experimental data. It is only with validated DEM
that any confidence can be given to the predictive
capability of such computational tools, especially
when the predictive range lies beyond that for
which the existing semi-empirical models were
developed.
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