Fundamental investigation of particle-fluid flow in the IsaMill grinding process. The Australian mining and minerals processing industries generated exports of about $56 billion in 2004/5, representing approximately 44 per cent of Australia's total exports. Grinding is a basic operation that liberates valuable minerals from the host rock. However, conventional grinding technologies are very inefficient. The newly developed IsaMill technique greatly improves the power efficiency of the grinding p ....Fundamental investigation of particle-fluid flow in the IsaMill grinding process. The Australian mining and minerals processing industries generated exports of about $56 billion in 2004/5, representing approximately 44 per cent of Australia's total exports. Grinding is a basic operation that liberates valuable minerals from the host rock. However, conventional grinding technologies are very inefficient. The newly developed IsaMill technique greatly improves the power efficiency of the grinding process. This project aims to understand the flow of particles and fluids within IsaMill through combined experimental and numerical studies, leading to improved grinding performance and lower energy consumption. Such work will provide a significant economic benefit not only to Xstrata but also to the Australian mineral processing industry.Read moreRead less
Multi-scale modelling of particle breakage in grinding process. The minerals industry is the largest exporter in Australia, contributing approximately 40% of Australia's total exports. Grinding is one of basic operations in mineral processing to liberate valuables from the host rock. Grinding process, however, has very low efficiency and may account for 50% of the direct operating cost of a mineral processing plant. This project is to develop a novel, multi-scale model to investigate grinding at ....Multi-scale modelling of particle breakage in grinding process. The minerals industry is the largest exporter in Australia, contributing approximately 40% of Australia's total exports. Grinding is one of basic operations in mineral processing to liberate valuables from the host rock. Grinding process, however, has very low efficiency and may account for 50% of the direct operating cost of a mineral processing plant. This project is to develop a novel, multi-scale model to investigate grinding at both process and individual particle levels and to provide a more accurate prediction of grinding performance. This will result in improved control and design of grinding process with reduced energy consumption and mineral waste, which will be of immense economic and environmental benefit to Australia.Read moreRead less