Comminution

In order to separate the valuable components of an ore from the waste rock, the minerals must be liberated from their interlocked state physically by comminution. As a rule, comminution begins by crushing the ore to below a certain size and finishes by grinding it into powder, the ultimate fineness of which depends on the fineness of dissemination of the desired mineral.

In primitive times, crushers were small, hand-operated pestles and mortars, and grinding was done by millstones turned by men, horses, or waterpower. Today, these processes are carried out in mechanized crushers and mills. Whereas crushing is done mostly under dry conditions, grinding mills can be operated both dry and wet, with wet grinding being predominant.

Crushing

Some ores occur in nature as mixtures of discrete mineral particles, such as gold in gravel beds and streams and diamonds in mines. These mixtures require little or no crushing, since the valuables are recoverable using other techniques (breaking up placer material in log washers, for instance). Most ores, however, are made up of hard, tough rock masses that must be crushed before the valuable minerals can be released.

In order to produce a crushed material suitable for use as mill feed (100 percent of the pieces must be less than 10 to 14 millimetres, or 0.4 to 0.6 inch, in diameter), crushing is done in stages. In the primary stage, the devices used are mostly jaw crushers with openings as wide as two metres. These crush the ore to less than 150 millimetres, which is a suitable size to serve as feed for the secondary crushing stage. In this stage, the ore is crushed in cone crushers to less than 10 to 15 millimetres. This material is the feed for the grinding mill.

Grinding

In this process stage, the crushed material can be further disintegrated in a cylinder mill, which is a cylindrical container built to varying length-to-diameter ratios, mounted with the axis substantially horizontal, and partially filled with grinding bodies (e.g., flint stones, iron or steel balls) that are caused to tumble, under the influence of gravity, by revolving the container.

A special development is the autogenous or semiautogenous mill. Autogenous mills operate without grinding bodies; instead, the coarser part of the ore simply grinds itself and the smaller fractions. To semiautogenous mills (which have become widespread), 5 to 10 percent grinding bodies (usually metal spheres) are added.

Crushing/grinding

Yet another development, combining the processes of crushing and grinding, is the roll crusher. This consists essentially of two cylinders that are mounted on horizontal shafts and driven in opposite directions. The cylinders are pressed together under high pressure, so that comminution takes place in the material bed between them.