Effective circulating load ratio in mill circuit for milling capacity and further flotation process - lab scale study
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Istanbul Technical University
Publication date: 2022-05-09
Physicochem. Probl. Miner. Process. 2022;58(5):149916
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ABSTRACT
The design of the grinding circuits and the control of the transferring load in the ore preparation plants are of great importance from a technical and economic point of view. The importance of the circulating load for grinding process is well known and stated in the literature. However, there are not many studies on the effect on the following processes. In this study, the effect of the circulating load on both the grinding capacity and the subsequent flotation process was investigated at laboratory scale. Copper ore was used in the experiments. The circulating load was adjusted by changing the residence time of the material in the mill. Then, flotation experiments were carried out with the materials obtained at different circuit loads. The results showed that the grinding capacity can be increased up to 180% by optimizing the circulating load and it will positively affect the flotation performance. It was observed that a concentrate with the highest recovery for the same Cu grade was obtained with CLR of 150 % when compared to flotation recoveries through various CLRs. It is suggested that the circulating load should not be evaluated only in terms of the grinding process, but also the subsequent processes should be considered. Future studies in this area may contribute to industrial applications.