Journal of Mining Engineering

Journal of Mining Engineering

A Model to predict the wear rate of shell liners in tumbling mills - Sarcheshmeh Copper Complex and Gol-E-Gohar Mining and Industrial Company SAG Mill Cases

Document Type : research - paper

Abstract
Currently, in mineral processing plants most often high throughput SAG mills are used in comminution circuits. Since shut down of these units could result in production stoppage, the availability time of these equipment are of prime importance. One of the main parameters involved in shut down time is the liner replacement time. Hence, models which are able to predict liner life time could have a significant effect on the performance of the operation. In the past decades, various models have been proposed to estimate the liner wear rate, but due to their empirical nature they could only be used in a certain operating conditions. In this research, a phenomenological model which could predict the liner wear rate considering parameters such as operating conditions, liner hardness, pressure on the lifter, relative velocity of particles and mill shell was proposed and tested. Availability to industrially measured liner profiles data during the liner life time at the Sarcheshmeh and Gol-E-Ghohar SAG mills provided a solid base to calibrate and validate the model. The results showed that the model predictions and the actual measurements of the liner wear rate of SAG mills correlate well at Sarcheshmeh (R2=0.94) and Gol-E-Ghohar (R2=0.97) concentrators.
 
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Volume 11, Issue 30
Spring 2016
Pages 40-50

  • Receive Date 26 January 2015
  • Revise Date 25 October 2015
  • Accept Date 23 November 2015