Investigation on Iron Ore Grinding based on Particle Size Distribution and Liberation

Abstract

In the iron and steel industry, the production of narrow particle size distribution (PSD) for pellet feed making with acceptable liberation of valuables from the iron ore is very difficult. This study has been carried out to achieve desired pellet feed with narrow PSD and maximum liberation of hematite from the iron ore. The iron ores have been collected from three different sources (mines in Karnataka state) and milled. The iron ores and the blend feed samples were analyzed in the Optical Microscope (OM) and Quantitative Evaluation of Minerals by Scanning Electron Microscopy (QEMSCAN) to understand the PSD and percentage of hematite liberation. The new approach is adapted to identify the retention time (RT) of the iron ore in the mill, and the total RT taken for the blend sample in the Bond’s ball mill is considered as the reference grinding time for milling in the Laboratory Ball Mill (LBM). The desired narrow PSD (− 150/+ 10 µm) with acceptable hematite liberation is achieved at an optimal grinding time of 7 min in the LBM. © 2020, The Indian Institute of Metals - IIM.