Nickel ore grinding energy determination

Abstract

This study describes the application of an empirical method to estimate the energy consumption in laboratory of the primary grinding of nickel ore with a specific mineralogical texture. This method developed by Donda was previously used in iron ore from the Iron Quadrangle (Minas Gerais, Brasil) with the same purpose. Through the grinding test, performed under standard conditions and based on the degree of liberation and percentage retained on 0.074 mm, it is possible to obtain the energy consumption for grinding. The results mean a validation of the method with a good approximation between industrial and laboratory values. In practice the energy consumption is 26.6 kWh/t and through Donda’s method, when using the liberation degree as a parameter, the energy found was 26.8 kWh/t.