What is the semi-self-grinding process in mineral processing operations?

Crushing and grinding operations are the key processes before sorting, and their costs account for 50%-60% of the mineral processing plant, and energy and steel consumption account for 60%-70%.The traditional crushing and grinding process mostly uses a crusher + ball mill to complete the crushing and grinding operations. This combination method has been very mature after many years of application. However, it has shortcomings such as long process and complex equipment. The semi-self-grinding process can alleviate these problems and has become a more used crushing and grinding process in recent years.

Semi-self-grinding process flow and principle

Principle: The semi-self-grinding process has both crushing and rough grinding functions, with the ore itself as the main grinding medium, supplemented by an appropriate amount of steel balls.The difference between the semi-self-grinding process and the ball milling process is that it can break the ore according to the dissociation surface, and the monomer dissociation degree is higher.

Process flow: There are three commonly used processes for semi-self-grinding processes：

(1) Single-stage semi-self-grinding process (SA): simple and easy to manage, but with high energy consumption and weak fine grinding ability, it is necessary to understand the nature of the ore.

(2) Semi-self-grinding + ball mill process (SAB process): After the ore is roughly crushed, it enters the semi-self-grinding machine, and then passes through the vibrating screen, cyclone + ball mill process.It is suitable for non-ferrous metal and gold mines with medium or softer ores, but it is greatly affected by the crushing speed of stubborn stones.

(3) Semi-self-grinding + ball grinding + crushing process (SABC process): After the ore is broken, it enters semi-self-grinding to replace a number of operations.It has strong adaptability to ore and is widely used.

Advantages and disadvantages of semi-self-grinding process

(1) Advantage：

The process is short, the equipment is small, the footprint is small, the investment and operating costs are low, and it is easy to manage and automatically control.

It can reduce over-crushing, improve product particle size and slurry properties, have strong adaptability to high-viscosity ores, have a large crushing ratio, and promote mineral dissociation.

(2) Disadvantage：

It is sensitive to the nature of raw ore, has a long commissioning cycle, complex operation and control, low equipment operation rate and grinding efficiency, high power consumption, short life of the inner lining plate, and easy damage to steel balls.

The semi-self-grinding process is not suitable for all ores. It is suitable for ores with Platts hardness f=6-12. At the same time, the particle size, coarse-grained content and ore hardness must be considered.