Ball Mill

Mills whose grinding medium consists of steel balls are called “ball mills”. They are used in 35 mesh (425 micron) and finer grinding. Generally, they are used in the final stage of milling. In these mills, which produce a thinner product compared to rod mills, the ratio of neck to diameter varies between 1 and 1,5.  In general, the length of the mill is longer in fine grinding.

If the ratio of mill length to diameter is between 3 and 5, it is called “tube mill”. When the grinding medium consists of flint or ceramic balls instead of steel balls, this is referred to as a ‘gravel mill’.

Size Reduction in Mining Industries with Ball Mill

With the grinding process known as a common and old method, the  complex ore is brought to the desired size. Thus, it is the important step in benefication processes in the mining industry in terms of efficiency increase in leaching processes.

Grinding is the last stage of the size reduction process and is applied to grain sizes  smaller than 25 mm. For the powdering of ore These tools used are called ‘grinder’ or ‘mill’. Material to be ground in mills; It is pulverized by impact, crushing, shearing and friction force.

Comparisation of Wet and Dry Ore by Milling

Grinding can be done in two ways as “dry” or “wet”. The energy consumption of dry grinding is approximately 30% more than wet grinding. The main reason for this is; It is the faster aggregation of fine grains in dry grinding and slowing the grinding. Therefore, some dispersant chemicals that prevent agglomeration can also be used in dry grinding. In addition, dry grinding cannot be operated at high speeds due to its lower capacity than wet grinding and the mill body overheating. Therefore, in mineral processing plants, the grinding is generally done in wet form.

Size Reduction in Scrap E-waste Industries with Ball Mill

According to the studies conducted, there has been an increase in the precious metals recovery process and high recovery rate by using the ball mill in the benefication phase of electronic waste. Therefore, ball mills are thought as an environmentally friendly method during the recovery of precious metals from e-waste.  Our R&D team continues their research on this topic.

Economic Evaluation

Size reduction is one of the most expensive processes in the mineral processing industry. The cost of size reduction in a mineral processing plant can be up to 50-60% of the total facility cost. The reason for the high costs at this level is; Although it is related to the physical, chemical and mineralogical properties of the material and the final size desired in the product, it is directly related to whether the tools that will break the material are of appropriate qualifications and whether they are selected correctly.

As Proses Makina Team, We install the recycling&refining plants from mining&scrap industries according to the demands of our customers and design our machines to suit complex ores and top of the line operation for fifteen years.