Int. J. Miner. Process.

79 (2006) 174 – 187

www.elsevier.com/locate/ijminpro

Slurry flow in mills with TCPL — An efficient pulp lifter

for ag/sag mills
Sanjeeva Latchireddi ⁎, Stephen Morrell
JKMRC, University of Queensland, Isles Rd., Indooroopilly 4068, Australia
Received 14 December 2005; accepted 23 February 2006
Available online 24 April 2006

Abstract

The difficulties associated with slurry transportation in autogenous (ag) and semi-autogenous (sag) grinding mills have become
more apparent in recent years with the increasing trend to build larger diameter mills for grinding high tonnages. This is particularly
noticeable when ag/sag mills are run in closed circuit with classifiers such as fine screens/cyclones.
Extensive test work carried out on slurry removal mechanism in grate discharge mills (ag/sag) has shown that the conventional
pulp lifters (radial and curved) have inherent drawbacks. They allow short-circuiting of the slurry from pulp lifters into the grinding
chamber leading to slurry pool formation. Slurry pool absorbs part of the impact thus inhibiting the grinding process.
Twin Chamber Pulp Lifter (TCPL) — an efficient design of pulp lifter developed by the authors overcomes the inherent
drawbacks of the conventional pulp lifters. Extensive testing in both laboratory and pilot scale mills has shown that the TCPL
completely blocks the flow-back process, thus allowing the mill to operate close to their design flow capacity. The TCPL
performance is also found to be independent of variations in charge volume and grate design, whereas they significantly affect the
performance of conventional pulp lifters (radial and curved).
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: sag milling; comminution; grinding; autogenous; grates; pulp lifters

1. Introduction performance analyses of conventional design of pulp

Pulp lifters, also known as pan lifters, are an impor-
tant component of grate discharge mills (GDM). The
GDM include autogenous (ag), semiautogenous (sag)
and grate discharge ball mills. The purpose of the pulp
lifters is simply to transport the slurry passing through
the grate holes into the discharge trunnion. The
⁎ Corresponding author. Current address: Outokumpu Technology
Inc., 10771 E Easter Ave., Centennial, CO 80112, USA.
E-mail address: sanjeeva.latchireddi@outokumpu.com
(S. Latchireddi).
0301-7516/$ - see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.minpro.2006.02.005
lifter have shown that a large amount of slurry flows
back from pulp lifter into the mill. The degree of slow-
back depends on the size and design of the pulp lifters.
The ideal slurry flow in a typical grate discharge mill is
schematically shown in Fig. 1.
The geometry of conventional pulp lifters is such that
the slurry, once passed through the grate into pulp lifter
will always be in contact with the grate until it is com-
pletely discharged, which makes the ‘flow-back’ pro-
cess inevitable (Latchireddi, 2002). Though the impact
of flow-back may be of lower magnitude in open circuit
grinding, it can make a noticeable impact when the mills
are operated in closed circuit, especially with cyclones
 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187
Grate
Fig. 1. Ideal slurry flow in a typical grate discharge mill.
and fine screens, where very large amounts of slurry
pass through the mills.
Based on the analysis and understanding of the me-
chanism of slurry removal system in ag/sag mills ope-
rating with conventional pulp lifters, Latchireddi and
Morrell (1997a, in press-a,b) have summarized the slurry
transportation process in grate discharge mills as shown
in Fig. 2.
Although the carry-over of slurry in pulp lifter occurs
only at higher mill speeds, eventually it flows through
the grate back into the mill by the time it starts a new
cycle.
It is essential to stop the flow-back process to im-
prove the performance of pulp lifters, and any reduction
in flow-back fraction would directly result in higher
flow capacity. There are two possible ways to achieve
this aim. The first of them is to increase the width/depth
of the pulp lifter to such an extent that the slurry inside
the pulp lifter does not get exposed to the grate holes.
Flow-back
Flow-back
Ore
Mill Pulp
Grat
Grate Discharge
Shell Lifter
Water Carry -over
Fig. 2. Different stages of material transportation in a grate discharge
mill.
175
Flow out of
trunnion
Flow into the
pul lifter
pulp
However, this option would increase the cost of the mill
considerably besides introducing high frictional resis-
tance to the slurry flow. The other option is to change the
design of pulp lifter, and one such design development
is the Twin Chamber Pulp Lifter — TCPL (Latchireddi,
2002; Latchireddi and Morrell, 1997b).
This paper describes the development of the TCPL
and its performance in comparison to the conventional
designs based on the test work carried out in laboratory
and pilot mills. Also briefly presented are the results of
the first industrial installation at Wagerup Refinery of
Alcoa World Alumina.
2. Development of a twin chamber pulp lifter
The only way to stop ‘flow-back’ is to ensure that
once the slurry entered the pulp lifter, is not exposed to
the grate holes or slots. The importance of this aspect is
illustrated by considering two contiguous segments of
the radial pulp lifter (RPL) as shown in Fig. 3. The two
segments look like two rectangular boxes sitting one
upon each other. It is implicit from Fig. 3 that the slurry
present inside the pulp lifter will always be in contact
with grate holes.
The two contiguous segments were modified by
feathering the radial face and as shown in Fig. 4. This
arrangement was done to facilitate the slurry to flow
away from the grate holes.
It is apparent from Fig. 4 that the slurry first enters
the section exposed to the grate, the Transition chamber
(TC) and then flows into the lower section, the
176 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187

Peripheral view

Grate

Radial face

Fig. 3. Two contiguous radial pulp lifters as seen from the mill discharge end.

Collection chamber (CC). The collection chamber is not
exposed to the grate holes at all. This mechanism
ensures the pulp unable to flow or drain backwards into
the mill. Hence the flow-back process is prevented up to
the capacity of the collection chamber. Since the new
design consists of two chambers for different purposes,
it was named the “Twin Chamber Pulp Lifter” (TCPL).
The TCPL can be precisely designed to handle the
designed flow capacity of the mill whose dimensions
depends on the operating conditions such as mill speed
and number of pulp lifter segments. It is important to
note that the cross-sectional area of the slot through
which slurry flows from transition chamber into collec-
tion chamber should be at least equal to the total area of
grate holes in that section to allow free flow of slurry.
3. Experimental
3.1. Laboratory mill
Prototype models of the TCPL (Fig. 4) were
fabricated using a 2 mm thick clear acrylic, equal in
volume to that of the three different sizes of radial pulp
lifters (RPL). For a given mill diameter, the width of the
pulp lifter determines its capacity. In the present
investigation, the pulp lifter size (PLS) was represented

Fig. 4. The schematic of TCPL arrangement.

 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187 177

Table 1
The normalized size of pulp lifters used in test work (TCPL/RPL)
Pulp lifter size PLS
Small 0.018
Medium 0.0335
Large 0.0495

as a fraction of mill diameter (PLS = Depth of pulp

lifter / Mill diameter). The details of the pulp lifter sizes
that were used in the test work are given in Table 1. The
volume of pulp lifters (TCPL/RPL) was kept same for
the purpose of comparison.
Tests were conducted after fixing a single segment of
the pulp lifter to the grate whose discharge was collected
independently via the central trunnion arrangement as
shown in the schematic of laboratory mill (0.3 m dia-
meter × 0.15 m length) in Fig. 5.
For each test, first a timed sample of pulp lifter dis-
charge was taken to estimate its discharge rate and then
the instantaneous hold-up was measured. To obtain the
discharge capacity of the entire pulp lifter assembly at the
measured hold-up, the discharge rate of the single pulp
lifter segment was multiplied by the total number (six-
Fig. 6. The complete section of pilot scale TCPL.
teen) of pulp lifters.

3.2. Pilot scale mill tional radial pulp lifter was shown fixed to the mill, and
the pilot size TCPL kept standing at the bottom. The size
The complete assembly of the 1 m diameter by 0.5 m of the pulp lifter was kept same (PLS = 0.335) for all the
length pilot mill is shown in Fig. 6, where the conven- designs for the purpose of their comparison.

Discharge
Transparent funnel
grate
Pulp lifter segment

Pulp lifter
discharge
Flow
meter Collection
chute
Grinding
media
Twister Sampler

Pump

Fig. 5. The schematic diagram of the laboratory mill (0.3 × 0.15 m).
178 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187

Tests were conducted with TCPL, RPL and CPL, A

25
independently at the same operating conditions where Small
charge volume, mill speed, grate open area were varied Medium
20
over a range of feed flowrates.

Discharge rate (l/m)

Grate-only
In each test the mill was set to rotate at the required Large
speed, after fixing the desired grate and pulp lifter to the 15
discharge end of the mill and filling with a known
volume of charge/grinding media. Then the pump was 10
switched on and the flow was allowed to pass into the
mill by opening the knife-gate valve whose flowrate was 5
estimated manually by taking timed samples. Upon al-
lowing the mill to reach steady state condition, the mill 0
feed and rotation were simultaneously stopped, and the 0.05 0.1 0 .15 0 .2
water that surged out of grate was diverted by the sam- Fractional Hold-up
pling arrangement into a separate container. The leftover B
25
fluid inside the mill was drained out through a separate
Small
drain valve fixed on the mill shell. The volume of the Medium
fluid collected was reported as the instantaneous hold- 20 Grate-only
Discharge rate (l/m)
up inside the mill at the given flowrate. Large
The detailed discussions on the results obtained with 15
the conventional designs of pulp lifters have been pub-
lished elsewhere (Latchireddi and Morrell, in press-a,b) 10
by the authors. The performance analysis of TCPL in
comparison to the conventional pulp lifters is discussed
5
in the following sections.

4. Results and discussion 0

0.05 0.1 0.15 0 .2
Fractional Hold-up
4.1. Influence of pulp lifter size
Fig. 7. A: Performance of different sizes of TCPL in laboratory mill.
To understand how the increasing size of the pup B: Performance of different sizes of RPL in laboratory mill.
lifter influences the performance of TCPL in transport-
ing the slurry passing through the grate, a set of results • the TCPL allows the mill to operate at its maximum
obtained at a particular condition (30% charge volume, flow capacity as obtained by grate-only discharge
70% critical speed, 7.05 open area) are plotted as shown system.
in Fig. 7(A). For the purpose of comparison, the perfor-
mance of radial pulp lifters (RPL) under the same con- The above observations and the typical design of
ditions is shown in Fig. 7(B). TCPL amply demonstrate that the flow-back process
The important observations that can be made from can be eliminated, up to the capacity of the collection
Fig. 7A compared to Fig. 7B are: chamber.

• the TCPL performance matches the ideal (grate-only)
system over a much greater range of discharge rates.
• the increasing pulp lifter size increases the discharge
rate, and hence the range over which it matches ideal
discharge rates.
• the deviation point of the discharge lines from the
ideal line indicates that the volume of fluid flowing
into the pulp lifter through the grate exceeds the
capacity of the collection chamber — hence part of
the fluid remains held-up in the transition chamber,
which performs in a similar manner to that of a RPL.
4.2. Influence of the variables on performance of TCPL
Besides overcoming the major problem of flow-
back, which is unavoidable in case of conventional
pulp lifter designs, the unique design of TCPL offers
many other advantages. The most important one is that
its performance does not get affected due to variations
in:
♦ grate open area, and
♦ volume of grinding media (charge) inside the mill.
 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187 179

In ag/sag mills the volume of the grinding media It has been a usual practice to increase the grate open
(balls and coarse ore) tends to change with the type of area to obtain an increased discharge rate. This would
ore which also has strong interaction with grate open be successful with grate-only discharge mechanism
area and influences the performance of pulp lifter. (Latchireddi and Morrell, in press-a). However, it was
Hence, the effects of both these variables are shown found from the test work with grate-pulp lifter
together and discussed. To illustrate the above points the discharge systems that the performance of RPL in
variation in mill hold-up–discharge rate relation with transporting the slurry flowing out of the discharge
change in grate open area and charge volumes are shown grate, deteriorates with increasing open area and is
in Figs. 8 and 9 respectively for RPL and TCPL. particularly high in magnitude when the mill is running

Charge volume
Charge volume - 15% RPL Charge volume - 30% RPL Charge volume - 45% RPL
Open area - 3.6% Ideal Open area - 3.6% Ideal Open area - 3.6% Ideal
500 500 500

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

400 400 400

300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0
0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Fractional Hold-up Fractional hold-up Fractional hold-up

Charge volume - 15% RPL Charge volume - 30% RPL Charge volume - 45% RPL
Grate open area

Open area - 7% Ideal Open area - 7% Ideal

Open area - 7% Ideal
500 500 500

400 400 400

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Fractional hold-up Fractional hold-up Fractional hold-up

Charge volume - 15% RPL Charge volume - 30% RPL Charge volume - 45% RPL
Open area - 10% Ideal Open area -10% Ideal Open area - 10% Ideal
500 500 500
Discha rge r a te (l/m )

400 400 400

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4
Fractional hold-up Fractional hold-up Fractional hold-up

Fig. 8. Performance of RPL with variations in charge volume and open.

180 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187

Charge volume
Charge volume - 15% Ideal Charge volume - 30% Ideal Charge volume - 45% Ideal
Open area - 3.6% TCPL Open area - 3.6% TCPL Open area - 3.6% TCPL
500 500 500
Discharge rate (l/m)

400 400 400

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)
300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Fractional Hold-up Fractional Hold-up Fractional Hold-up

Charge volume - 15% Ideal Charge volume - 30% Ideal Charge volume - 45% Ideal
Open area - 7% Open area - 7% Open area - 7%
Grate open area

TCPL TCPL TCPL

500 500 500

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

400 400 400

Discharge rate (l/m)

300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Fractional Hold-up Fractional Hold-up Fractional Hold-up

Charge volume 15% Ideal Charge volume 30% Ideal Charge volume 45% Ideal
Open area - 10% TCPL Open area - 10% TCPL Open area - 10% TCPL
500 500 500
Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

Discharge rate (l/m)

400 400 400

300 300 300

200 200 200

100 100 100

0 0 0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4

Fractional Hold-up Fractional Hold-up Fractional Hold-up

Fig. 9. Performance of TCPL with variations in charge volume and open area.

with lower charge volume. This trend can be seen in ment made by Rowland and Kjos (1975), that if the pulp
Fig. 8 in terms of the difference between the grate-only lifters do not have enough capacity, the typical approach
(ideal) and grate-pulp lifter lines. Though this trend of increasing the grate area does not improve the
remains the same, the magnitude of inefficiency situation but makes it worse by allowing the slurry to
gradually reduces with increasing charge volume. This flow back into the mill, causing it to run too wet. Morrell
is simply because the amount of flow-back is propor- and Kojovic (1996) have mentioned that the presence of
tional to the number of grate holes that are exposed to the excessive slurry pool inside the mill reduces the
fluid inside the pulp lifter, which reduces with increasing grinding efficiency.
charge volume. The results presented in Fig. 8 amply illustrate that
The observation of decreasing discharge rates with the performance of conventional radial pulp lifters, in
increasing grate open area is in accordance to the state- transporting the slurry, is highly influenced by the
 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187
500
Grate- onl y
400
Dicharge rate (l/min)
300
200
100
0 It is apparent from Fig. 10 that using TCPL is
0 0.1 0.2
Fractional hold-up
Fig. 10. Comparison of different pulp lifter designs (pilot mill data at
15% charge, 7.05% grate open area and 70% critical speed, pulp lifter
size — 6.7%).
variations in grate open area and charge volume inside
the mill.
Contrary to the observations made from the RPL
results shown in Fig. 8, it may be seen from Fig. 9 that
the performance of the TCPL is not adversely affected
by changes in grate open area and charge volume. This
observation is clearly seen up to the discharge capacity
of the collection chamber. This is because once the
slurry flows into the collection chamber it is not exposed
to the grate holes. However, the influence of the charge
volume and open area, which is similar to that in the
RPL, can be seen at discharge rates exceeding the ca-
pacity of the collection chamber.
Comparing Fig. 8 with that of Fig. 9, it is quite
evizdent that up to the capacity of the collection
chamber, the performance of TCPL is not adversely
influenced by changes in grate open area and charge
volume inside the mill.
4.3. Performance comparison of TCPL with conven-
tional pulp lifter designs
To illustrate the superiority of the TCPL over con-
ventional pulp lifter designs, the relationship between
the hold-up and discharge rates of the mill operating
with the same size of TCPL, RPL and CPL are plotted
for a particular condition as shown in Fig. 10.
It may be noted from Fig. 10 that for the same pulp
lifter size,
➣ at a given slurry hold-up in the mill, the discharge
rate with the TCPL is significantly higher than
that of the RPL/CPL, which makes it obvious that
181
for the same level of hold-up in the mill, the mill
TCPL
can be operated at a higher throughput with the
Curv ed TCPL compared to that with the RPL or CPL.
➣ at a given flow-rate, the slurry hold-up inside the
Radial mill can be kept close to the grate-only (ideal)
hold-up with TCPL in use. Whereas with either
RPL or CPL in use, the mill hold-up increases
significantly to a higher level due to flow-back,
leading to the formation of a slurry pool, which
has adverse effects on the grinding efficiency.
0.3 0.4 advantageous in maintaining slurry levels closer to the
ideal conditions (grate-only) without slurry pooling — the
condition that is required for the best grinding performance.
5. Full-scale industrial installation of TCPL
The clear ability of the TCPL to achieve a higher
discharge rate for a given hold-up prompted Alcoa World
Alumina Australia to install this design in one of their
severely flow restricted SAG mills at its Wagerup Refinery
in Western Australia. This is the world's first full-scale
industrial trial of the TCPL whose installation and com-
missioning was carried out during August/September
1999 and was subsequently installed in all 9 mills (Denis
et al., 2001) of both Wagerup and Pinjarra refineries.
Based on the simulations, preliminary design details
of the TCPL concept with critical dimensions were pro-
vided to Alcoa. Prototype models were used to convey
the design concept and understand the issues of flow-
back and pitfalls of the current radial pulp lifters to
designers and other related plant personnel involved. To
ensure better understanding of the design for retrofitting
and installation, ALCOA had fabricated a scale model of
grate-TCPL assembly.
Fig. 11. The schematic of #4 mill circuit together with sampling points.
182 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187

To assess the effect of the TCPL compared with the
existing RPL, complete grinding surveys around the sag
mill circuit were conducted both before and after the
installation. The important observations made are
discussed in this section.
5.1. Description of milling circuit and data acquisition
The schematic of the mill #4 circuit is shown in
Fig. 11. Fresh ore was fed via a conveyor from a 2000 t
capacity mill feed bin, which was kept full to minimise
size segregation during the mill surveys and trials.
Slurry discharged from the mill passes through the
trommel, where oversize is returned to the mill via a
central pipe with assistance of a liquor jet. The undersize
of trommel flows into a sump from where a variable
speed pump delivers it to the DSM screens via rotary
distributor. The DSM oversize and the spent liquor
combines together and enters the mill along with the
fresh feed.

A
500
Feed Rate (TPH)

400

300

200

100

0
22:06 22:06 22:06 22:06 22:06
Time (Hours)
B
Feed Rate (TPH)
500
Power (x10, KWH)

400

300

200

Mill Spill Point

100

0
17: 30 20: 30 23: 30 2:30 5:30 8:30 11: 30 14: 30

Time (Hours)

Fig. 12. A: Mill fed rate (TPH) over a period of 5 days (pre-installation). B: Spill points where slurry overflows (pre-installation).
 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187 183

which trips the feed till the mill settles down. Two of these
spikes in mill feed rate response can be seen in Fig. 12B.
The spilling of the sag mill over the feed trunnion
indicates that the volume of slurry inside the mill (hold-
up) has increased so much that the mill starts to operate
similar to an overflow mill. This situation arises due to
the poor performance of its discharge assembly,
consisting of a very small size of pulp lifters.
A significant amount of slurry was observed to be
spilled over the feed trunnion soon after the crash stop of
the mill and the slurry level up to the lip of the feed
trunnion can be seen in Fig. 13 where a 700 mm deep
slurry pool was measured above the charge level (grind-
ing media + coarse ore).

5.3. Simulation of pre- and post-installation conditions

The models developed by Latchireddi (2002) were

used to predict the hold-up–discharge rate curve for the
ideal or the grate-only discharge system as well as with
pulp lifters. The simulated results thus obtained are
graphically shown in Fig. 14.
The large difference between the discharge rates
through the grate and the pulp lifters at any hold-up
clearly shows the inefficient performance of the existing
pulp lifters. It can be observed from Fig. 14 that at the
current mill discharge rate of 440 m3/h, the slurry hold-
up inside the mill is significantly higher than the ideal
hold-up. This results in a huge slurry pool, as observed
during the crash stop of the mill (Fig. 13A), causing the
mill to run too wet which leads to inefficient grinding
(Rowland and Kjos, 1975; Austin et al., 1984). The wear
Fig. 13. A: Slurry pool inside the mill (pre-installation). B: Wear on
grate due to flow-back (pre-installation).
pattern caused by the flow-back on inner side of the
discharge grate can be seen in Fig. 13B.
To assess the true effect of the TCPL, a complete mill
survey around the sag mill circuit was conducted both
600 Grate-only
before and after the installation of the TCPL. The
Proposed TCPL
sampling points from where the representative samples Existing RPL
500
were collected at intervals of every 15 min over a period
Discharge rate (m3/h)

of 45 min are also shown in Fig. 11. All the surveys were Current operation
400
followed by a crash stop of the mill to measure the
steady state charge and slurry volumes.
300

5.2. Pre-installation performance

200

To understand the normal performance before instal-

100
lation of the TCPL, 6 min average process data were
obtained over a period of 5 days from the #4 sag mill
0
at Wagerup and is depicted in Fig. 12A. A feed rate of 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2
400 tph was seen occasionally with an average value of Fractional slurry hold-up
390 tph. A closer look at the data over few hours, spillage
of the mill through the feed trunnion can be observed, Fig. 14. Performance of pulp lifters based on simulated results.
184 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187

However, with the TCPL in operation, the slurry Table 2

hold-up was predicted to come very close to the grate- The process and operating data from the pre- and post-installation
surveys
only value, suggesting better grinding conditions inside
the mill without any slurry pool. Parameter Unit Pre Post
Throughput tph 390 390
6. Post-installation performance Gross power kW 2400 2430
Power usage kW h/t 6.15 6.23
Total load % vol 40 15.41
To understand the impact of the TCPL over the pre- Ball load % vol 12.4 12.4
installation condition, a complete mill survey was con- Rock and slurry % vol 32 8
ducted under the same operating conditions by setting Mill diameter m 7.73 7.73
the mill to run at 390 tph of feed rate. To isolate the effect Mill length (EGL) m 3.66 3.48
Mill speed % critical 70 70
of change in feed ore characteristics, it was made sure
Grate open area % 10.5 8.2
that the bauxite ore came from the same stockpile. Average hole diameter mm 26.8 18
The very first observation made during this survey
was a significant increase in mill noise with individual
impacts being easily identifiable. The noise observed transportation. However, due to the inability to refit
during pre-installation survey was very quiet with few worn components into the mill, the original discharge
discernible impacts due to the presence of the slurry grates could not be refitted. Although the position of the
pool. Upon crash stopping the mill after the survey, no holes remained the same, the total grate open area was
slurry was either overflowed or found on top of the reduced from 10.5% (14.7% total, 4.2% pegged) to
solids inside the mill (Fig. 15), which confirms the 7.9% (8.2% total, 0.3% pegged).
efficient transportation of slurry by the TCPL. Further, Considering the shortened mill length (from 3.66 to
the load inside the mill was found to have reduced 3.48 m), smaller grate hole size (from 26.8 to 18.5 mm)
significantly. and reduced grate open area (from 10.47% to 8.16%),
the load volume is expected to be more than the pre-
6.1. Assessment of impact installation condition for the same feed rate. Howev-
er, a significant reduction in the load volume (from
The operational differences, process data obtained 40% to 15.41%) was observed. The possible reasons
from the control room and the measured data on slurry for this are explained by analyzing the grinding pro-
and load volumes inside the mill for both pre- and post- cess during both pre- and post-installation conditions.
installation surveys are given in Table 2. This is discussed and schematically described in the
To assess the true influence of the pulp lifter design, following.
initially it was planned to reinstall the old grates to There are a number of breakage mechanisms that
isolate all the possible factors that could affect the slurry have been reported to cause size reduction in ag/sag
mills (Digre, 1969; Stanley, 1974). In a broad sense, all
the different mechanisms can be divided into two
principal groups based on the type of product they
generate, as shown below:

♦ Coarser product — impact breakage

♦ Finer product — chipping, abrasion and attrition.

A large amount of size reduction occurs by impact of

Fig. 15. Slurry level inside the mill after crash stop (post-installation).
coarse media and grinding balls falling from shoulder
position onto a bed of media in the toe region of the
charge. The grinding capacity of ag/sag mills largely
depends on impact breakage whose efficiency depends
on how well impact energy is imparted to the target
rocks at the toe.
In the pre-installation operation with RPL, the impact
energy of the falling media particles from the shoulder
position gets dissipated into the dense slurry pool
 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187
present near the toe region (Fig. 16a), instead of being
used to cause breakage of particles. This inefficient
usage of grinding energy reduces the grinding capacity.
However, with the TCPL installed, the slurry pool
completely disappeared due to stoppage of the flow-
back process. In absence of excessive slurry pool, the
impact energy of the falling grinding ball/particles will
be efficiently utilised in the breakage of particles
(Fig. 16b). Thus the increased impact breakage of
particles reduces the coarse ore in the load resulting in
reduced volume of total charge inside the mill.
Further, breakage of fine particles due to attrition is
also expected to increase as the probability of particles
getting caught in the shearing layers of balls and rocks
of the tumbling charge increases due to the presence of
slurry within the interstices of the grinding media.
The improved breakage of coarse and fine
particles due to removal of slurry pool, created by
efficient slurry transportation with TCPL can be seen
in size analysis data of different streams as given in
Table 3.
6.2. Mill operation with TCPL
The significantly lower operating load volume in the
mill with TCPL has provided opportunity for increase
in throughput. To optimise the grinding capacity, the
mill feed rate was increased at increments and the mill
operation at 450 tph was found to be achievable
without overloading the mill in either power or slurry
pooling. The mill load of 27% was estimated at
450 tph without excessive slurry on surface of the
charge.
Denis et al. (2001) have reported an average of
470 tph throughput over a period of one year with peak
a b
Poor
Attrition
Slurry
Pool
Poor
Impact
Pre Installation
Fig. 16. Slurry profile a) Pre-installation and b) post-installation of TCPL.
185
Table 3
DSM feed and product sizes before and after TCPL installation
Parameter 80% passing size (mm)
Pre Post
DSM feed 1.968 1.328
DSM oversize 4.165 3.459
DSM undersize 0.249 0.246
operation at as high as 520 tph for a 1 week duration
with load cells installed which allowed better control of
the mill. The operating data of the mill over 24 h of
continuous operation at an average of 510 TPH is
graphically shown in Fig. 17.
It can be observed from Fig. 17 that the mill was
running consistently as long as uniform feed was
provided, as indicated by the bin level. It is known
that there will be a segregation of coarse particles along
the periphery when a stream of crushed ore falls into a
bin or a stockpile. Consistent maintenance of its level is
essential to provide a uniform feed to the system. If the
level goes down significantly, the segregated coarse
particles start dominating the bin's discharge, which
enters the mill. The same thing has occurred when the
bin level dropped from 92% to 50% approx (around
9:24 AM — Fig. 17) resulting in significantly coarse
feed to the mill which leads to an overloading situation
as the coarse particles need more residence time to
break to the size of grate aperture. Due to increase in
the load, the mill draws more power and once it reaches
the set point (in this case 2900 kW) the control system
reduces the feed rate to bring the system back to
normal.
The average power draw at 510 tph feed rate was
observed to be 2814 kW which gives the specific energy
Attrition
Impact
Post Installation
186 S. Latchireddi, S. Morrell / Int. J. Miner. Process. 79 (2006) 174–187
600
500
400
z
300
200
Bin Level (%)
100
0
9:24 AM 12:24 PM 3:24 PM 6:24 PM 9:24 PM 12:24 AM 3:24 AM 6:24 AM
Fig. 17. Mill performance at 510 tph of feed rate.
of 5.52 kWh/t. Comparing this value with that of the
pre-TCPL installation (6.15 kWh/t), there is a signif-
icant saving of energy, which amounts to 7.7 MW h
per day.
7. Summary and conclusions
Proper design of the pulp lifter discharge system is
essential for successful mill operation. A new design of
pulp lifter called the Twin Chamber Pulp Lifter (TCPL)
overcomes the slurry transportation problems associated
with conventional pulp lifters (Radial and Curved) in
grate discharge mills. The experimental results obtained
from both laboratory and pilot scale mills have amply
demonstrated several advantages of the TCPL over
conventional designs.
• TCPL eliminates the flow-back process, which is
unavoidable with radial and curved pulp lifters — the
conventional designs.
• TCPL allows the mill to operate as close as possible to
its maximum flow capacity at any operating condition
compared to conventional pulp lifter designs.
• With TCPL the dependency of the pulp lifter's
performance on the grate design and the volume of
grinding media inside the mill can be eliminated.
This leaves the grate design as the major controlling
factor for mill capacity, which is relatively easier and
less capital intensive.
• TCPL can be precisely designed to handle the re-
quired flow capacity during the design stage.
The World's first industrial installation of TCPL in
26 ft diameter sag mill at Wagerup Refinery of Alcoa
world alumina has proved the advantages of TCPL at
industrial scale. With TCPL, the mill throughput has
increased from 390 (with RPL) to 470 tph on average by
Feed (TPH)
Power (x10 Kw)
ensuring the best grinding environment inside the mill
without slurry pool. Peak operation at as high as 510 tph
for 1-week duration were also achieved depending on
the type of bauxite ore. Mill power consumption on
kW h/t basis has dropped by approximately 15–20%
with increase in mill throughout. This trial has also
demonstrated the ease of design and retrofitting of
TCPL in existing mills to improve their operation.
Acknowledgements
The fellowship provided by AusAID and the finan-
cial support of the sponsors of the AMIRA P9L project
at JKMRC are gratefully acknowledged. The authors are
also grateful to ANI Mineral Processing for providing
the pilot sag mill and to Wagerup Refinery, Alcoa World
Alumina, Western Australia for conducting the world's
first industrial trials.
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