Autogenous Milling of Kimberlite

摘要

During the treatment of kimberlite for the liberation of diamonds, the ore is crushed to smaller than 25 mm and then scrubbed to liberate the diamonds. These crushing and scrubbing stages could possibly be replaced by a single open-circuit autogenous-milling stage. For this reason, Mintek was requested to run a series of pilot-plant tests to determine the autogenous-milling characteristics of a sample of kimberlite from Orapa. In addition, it was proposed that, if the pilot-scale tests were successful, design recommendations for a production-scale mill would be made.