The Effect of Microwave Treatment on Dry Grinding Kinetics of Iron Ore

• Published in: Mineral processing and extractive metallurgy review Vol. 33; no. 3; pp. 159 - 169
• Main Authors: Javad Koleini, S. M., Barani, K., Rezaei, B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia Taylor & Francis Group 01.05.2012; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Ball mills; Breakage; Comparative analysis; Extractive metallurgy; grinding; Heat treating; Iron; iron ores; Kinetics; microwave processing; Microwaves; Mineral processing; Ovens; Silicon
• ISSN: 0882-7508; 1547-7401
• DOI: 10.1080/08827508.2011.562947

The effect of microwave treatment on the grinding kinetics of an iron ore was assessed using mono-sized materials of −2.360 + 2.0 mm, −1.400 + 1.180 mm, −1.0 + 0.850 mm, and −0.355 + 0.300 mm as feed. Microwave-treated samples were kept in a multimode microwave oven with 1100 W input power. The grinding tests were conducted using a laboratory ball mill under identical conditions to allow a comparative analysis of the results. The specific rates of breakage (S i ) and cumulative breakage distribution function (B i,j ) values, as grinding breakage parameters, were determined for those size fractions of untreated and microwave-treated feeds. It was determined that breakage of iron ore followed a first-order behavior for fine feed sizes and deviated from first order for coarse feed size. The specific rate of breakage parameters of untreated iron ore was compared with microwave-treated iron ore under the same experimental conditions and it was found that microwave-treated materials break faster than untreated in terms of the S i and A values. Breakage parameters showed that treated materials produce more coarse material than untreated material in terms of the γ value of B i,j .