Studies on the Grinding Kinetics of Limestone Ore using Talcum Powder as an Additive

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2014 in the subject Geography / Earth Science - Geology, Mineralogy, Soil Science, grade: -, , course: Mineral Processing, language: English, abstract: In mineral processing, most of the operations involve size reduction to the required level to separate the valuable minerals from the ore. The principle operations involved in the size reduction are compression, impact, attrition, grinding and cutting etc. The degree of separation of the valuable mineral from its ore which is indicated by the degree of fineness of the material obtained from the grinding process is related to the cost involved in the process. In mineral beneficiation plants, grinding process is used using different grinding media for separating the valuable mineral from its ore, which should be economically feasible with minimum operational cost. The major of the operational cost is involved the energy consumption during the grinding process to get the desired degree of fineness to separate the valuable minerals from its ore to the maximum possible extent. Studies on the grinding kinetics of Limestone ore using talcum powder as an additive were under taken in the present work. Effect of various parameters on the performance of a ball mill during the grinding was studied. The parameters studied in the present work are time of grinding, quantity of feed, mill speed, grinding media, quantity of additive and feed size. The present study was mainly emphasized on specific surface area, energy consumption and breakage rate constant. Energy consumption (E) was calculated by varying time of grinding (t, min), quantity of feed (Q, g), mill speed (N, rpm), grinding media (Bs, cm), quantity of additive (QA , g) and feed size (Fs, g). Specific surface area (S) and Breakage rate constant (K) were also calculated for the same parameters.