Mineral Processing and Comminution in Mining Quiz

Mineral Processing and Comminution in Mining

• Mineral processing involves separating valuable minerals from gangue using physical and surface properties.
• Crushing is the initial stage of comminution, typically done in two or three stages of size reduction.
• Comminution circuits can be open or closed, with primary crushers operating in open circuit.
• Primary crushers include jaw crushers (with swinging steel jaws) and gyratory crushers (with a conically shaped crushing head).
• Secondary/tertiary crushing is mainly performed by cone crushers in closed circuit.
• Grinding is the final stage of comminution, commonly performed in rod mills, ball mills, or semi-autogenous mills.
• Rod mills use steel rods for primary grinding and operate in open circuit.
• Ball mills use steel balls for secondary grinding and are operated in closed circuit.
• Semi-autogenous mills use a combination of ore and steel balls as grinding media.
• Size separation technologies in mining include vibrating screens for coarse dry ore and centrifugal classifiers for finer ore in slurry form.
• Size separation aims to separate ore into undersize (smaller than desired) and oversize (requires further size reduction).
• The text is authored by Ahlam Maremi from the Mining Optimization Laboratory.

Test your knowledge of mineral processing and comminution in mining with this quiz. Explore topics such as crushing, grinding, and size separation technologies, and learn about the different stages and equipment involved in the process.