Stirred milling technologies have been increasingly used in secondary, tertiary grinding and regrinding applications, particularly in the finely-disseminated deposits. There are several stirred grinding technologies available in the market, categorized by mill orientation, stirrer type, grinding media size and type, breakage mechanisms, achievable grind size and energy intensity. As part of the feasibility assessment of each individual fine grinding technology for a given project, a suite of comminution testwork is required for characterization of the prospective feed; based on which the most suitable fine grinding technology is then selected. However, there is no universally-recognized methodology for fine grinding mill specific energy calculation and selection. The various mill manufactures propose their own test methods for their proprietary products. This paper summarises the various comminution test methodologies proposed by researchers and vendors and used for fine grinding mill sizing and selection. Published data on measured specific energy consumption from laboratory scale and pilot scale testwork and plant operations were collected and compared. The scale-up factor and energy efficiency factor used for design of the industrial mill were compared for different technologies. The work concludes by providing the recommended comminution testwork and efficiency factors for the purpose of scale-up to full size for specific fine grinding technologies in certain applications.
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