APPENDIX A.

USE OF THE Mia, Mib, Mih, Mic IN PREDICTING

COMMINUTION CIRCUIT SPECIFIC ENERGY
A 1 INTRODUCTION
The following technical note describes the recently extended use of the SMC Test® to
include crushers and HPGRs in determining the overall specific energy demand of
comminution circuits. It builds on previous work which included tumbling mills only
and should be read in conjunction with an earlier technical note dated September
2007 entitled “Use of the SMC Test® in Predicting Total Comminution Circuit Specific
Energy” as well as published papers: Morrell, 2008a, 2008b. This enhancement now
enables the SMC Test® to be used in conjunction with the Bond ball work index test
to predict the specific energy of comminution circuits where such circuits include
combinations of any of the following equipment:  
• AG and SAG mills
• Ball mills
• Rod mills
• Crushers
• High pressure Grinding Rolls (HPGR)

A 2 EQUATIONS
A 2.1 General
The approach divides comminution equipment into three categories:
• Tumbling mills, eg AG, SAG, rod and ball mills
• Conventional reciprocating crushers, eg jaw, gyratory and cone
• HPGRs
Tumbling mills are described using 2 indices: Mia and Mib
Crushers have one index: Mic
HPGRs have one index: Mih
For tumbling mills the 2 indices relate to “coarse” and “fine” ore properties plus an
efficiency factor which represents the influence of a pebble crusher in AG/SAG mill
circuits. “Coarse” in this case is defined as spanning the size range from a P80 of 750
µm up to the P80 of the product of the last stage of crushing or HPGR size reduction
prior to grinding. “Fine” covers the size range from a P80 of 750 µm down to P80 sizes
typically reached by conventional ball milling, ie about 45 µm. The choice of 750 µm
as the division between “coarse” and “fine” particle sizes was determined during the
development of the technique and was found to give the best overall results across
the range of plants in SMCT’s database. Implicit in the approach is that distributions
are parallel and linear in log-log space.
The work index covering grinding in tumbling mills of coarse sizes is labelled Mia.
The work index covering grinding of fine particles is labelled Mib. Mia values are
provided as a standard output from a SMC Test® (Morrell, 2004a) whilst Mib values
can be determined using the data generated by a conventional Bond ball mill work
index test (Mib is NOT the Bond ball work index). Mic and Mih values are also provided
as a standard output from a SMC Test®.
The general size reduction equation is as follows (Morrell, 2004b):
(
Wi = M i 4 x 2
f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (1)
where
Mi = Work index related to the breakage property of an ore (kWh/tonne). For
grinding from the product of the final stage of crushing to a P80 of 750
µm (coarse particles) the index is labelled Mia and for size reduction
from 750 µm to the final product P80 normally reached by conventional
ball mills (fine particles) it is labelled Mib. For conventional crushing Mic
is used and for HPGRs Mih is used.
Wi = Specific comminution (kWh/tonne)
x2 = 80% passing size for the product (µm)
x1 = 80% passing size for the feed (µm)
f(xj) = -(0.295 + xj/1000000) (Morrell, 2006) (2)
For tumbling mills the specific comminution energy (Wi) relates to the power at the
pinion or for gearless drives - the motor output. For HPGRs it is the energy inputted
to the rolls, whilst for conventional crushers Wi relates to the specific energy as
determined using the motor input power less the no-load power.
A 2.2 Specific Energy Determination for Comminution Circuits
The total specific energy (WT) to reduce in size primary crusher product to final
product is given by:
WT = Wa+Wb+Wc+Wh+Ws (3)
where
Wa = specific energy to grind coarser particles in tumbling mills
Wb = specific energy to grind finer particles in tumbling mills
Wc = specific energy for conventional crushing
Wh = specific energy for HPGRs
Ws = specific energy correction for size distribution
Clearly only the W values associated with the relevant equipment in the circuit being
studied are included in equation 3.
A 2.2.1 Tumbling mills
For coarse particle grinding in tumbling mills equation 1 is written as:
(
Wa = K1 M ia 4 x 2
f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (4)
where
K1 = 1.0 for all circuits that do not contain a recycle pebble crusher and 0.95
where circuits do have a pebble crusher
x1 = P80 (µm) of the product of the last stage of crushing before grinding
x2 = 750 µm
Mia = Coarse ore work index and is provided directly by SMC Test®
For fine particle grinding equation 1 is written as:
(
Wb = M ib 4 x3
f ( x3 )
− x2
f ( x2 )
) (5)
where
x2 = 750 µm
x3 = P80 (µm) of final grind
Mib = Provided by data from the standard Bond ball work index test using the
following equation (Morrell, 2006):
18.18
M ib =
P1
0.295
(
(Gbp ) p80 f ( p80 ) − f 80 f ( f80 ) ) (6)

where
Mib = fine ore work index (kWh/tonne)
P1 = closing screen size (µm)
Gbp = net grams of screen undersize per mill revolution
p80 = 80% passing size of the product (µm)
f80 = 80% passing size of the feed (µm)
Note that the Bond ball work index test should be carried out with a closing screen
size chosen to give a final product P80 similar to that intended for the full-scale circuit.
A 2.2.2 Conventional Crushers
Equation 1 for conventional crushers is written as:
Wc = K 2 M ic 4 x 2 ( f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (7)
K2 = 1.0 for all crushers operating in closed circuit with a classifying screen.
If the crusher is in open circuit, eg pebble crusher in a AG/SAG circuit,
K2 takes the value of 1.19.
x1 = P80 (µm) of the circuit feed
x2 = P80 (µm) of the circuit product
Mic = Crushing ore work index and is provided directly by SMC Test®
A 2.2.3 HPGR
Equation 1 for HPGR crushers is written as:
Wh = K 3 M ih 4 x 2 ( f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (8)
K3 = 1.0 for all HPGRs operating in closed circuit with a classifying screen. If
the HPGR is in open circuit, K3 takes the value of 1.19.
x1 = P80 (µm) of the circuit feed
x2 = P80 (µm) of the circuit product
Mih = HPGR ore work index and is provided directly by SMC Test®
A 2.2.4 Specific Energy Correction for Size Distribution (Ws)
Implicit in the approach described in this paper is that the feed and product size
distributions are parallel and linear in log-log space. Where they are not, allowances
(corrections) need to be made. By and large, such corrections are most likely to be
necessary (or are large enough to be warranted) when evaluating circuits in which
closed circuit secondary/tertiary crushing is followed by ball milling. This is because
such crushing circuits tend to produce a product size distribution which is relatively
steep when compared to the ball mill circuit cyclone overflow. This is illustrated in
App Figure 1, which shows measured distributions from an open and closed crusher
circuit as well as a ball mill cyclone overflow. The closed circuit crusher distribution
can be seen to be relatively steep compared with the open circuit crusher distribution
and ball mill cyclone overflow. Also the open circuit distribution more closely follows
the gradient of the cyclone overflow. If a ball mill circuit were to be fed 2
distributions, each with same P80 but with the open and closed circuit gradients in
App Figure 1, the closed circuit distribution would require more energy to grind to the
final P80. How much more energy is required is difficult to determine. However, for
the purposes of this approach it has been assumed that the additional specific
energy for ball milling is the same as the difference in specific energy between open
and closed crushing to reach the nominated ball mill feed size. This assumes that a
crusher would provide this energy. However, in this situation the ball mill has to
supply this energy and it has a different (higher) work index than the crusher (ie the
ball mill is less energy efficient than a crusher and has to input more energy to do the
same amount of size reduction). Hence from equation 7, to crush to the ball mill
circuit feed size (x2) in open circuit requires specific energy equivalent to:
Wc = 1.19 * M ic 4 x 2( f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (9)
For closed circuit crushing the specific energy is:
(
Wc = 1 * M ic 4 x 2
f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (10)
The difference between the two (eq 9 – eq 10) has to be provided by the milling
circuit with an allowance for the fact that the ball mill, with its lower energy efficiency,
has to provide it and not the crusher. This is what is referred to in equation 3 as Ws
and for the above example is therefore represented by:
Ws = 0.19 * M ia 4 x 2 ( f ( x2 )
− x1
f ( x1 )
) (11)
Note that in equation 11 Mic has been replaced with Mia, the coarse particle tumbling
mill grinding work index.
In AG/SAG based circuits the need for Ws appears to be unnecessary as App Figure
2 illustrates. Primary crusher feeds often have the shape shown in App Figure 2 and
this has a very similar gradient to typical ball mill cyclone overflows. A similar
situation appears to apply with HPGR product size distributions, as illustrated in App
Figure 3. Interestingly SMCT’s data show that for HPGRs, closed circuit operation
appears to require a lower specific energy to reach the same P80 as in open circuit,
even though the distributions for open and closed circuit look to have almost identical
gradients. Closer examination of the distributions in fact shows that in closed circuit
the final product tends to have slightly less very fine material, which may account for
the different energy requirements between the two modes of operation. It is also
possible that recycled material in closed circuit is inherently weaker than new feed,
as it has already passed through the HPGR previously and may have sustained
micro-cracking. A reduction in the Bond ball mill work index as measured by testing
HPGR products compared it to the Bond ball mill work index of HPGR feed has been
noticed in many cases in the laboratory (see next section) and hence there is no
reason to expect the same phenomenon would not affect the recycled HPGR screen
oversize.
It follows from the above arguments that in HPGR circuits, which are typically fed with
material from closed circuit secondary crushers, a similar feed size distribution
correction should also be applied. However, as the secondary crushing circuit uses
such a relatively small amount of energy compared to the rest of the circuit (as it
crushes to a relatively coarse size) the magnitude of size distribution correction is
very small indeed – much smaller than the error associated with the technique - and
hence may be omitted in calculations.
 100

% passing

closed circuit crusher

open circuit crusher
cyc overflow

10
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
size (mm)

App Figure 1 – Examples of Open and Closed Circuit Crushing Distributions

Compared with a Typical Ball Mill Cyclone Overflow Distribution

100
% passing

primary crusher prod

cyc overflow

10
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000
size (mm)

App Figure 2 – Example of a Typical Primary Crusher (Open and Circuit) Product
Distribution Compared with a Typical Ball Mill Cyclone Overflow Distribution
 100

% passing

closed circuit hpgr

open circuit hpgr
cyc overflow

10
0.01 0.1 1 10 100
size (mm)

App Figure 3 – Examples of Open and Closed Circuit HPGR Distributions Compared
with a Typical Ball Mill Cyclone Overflow Distribution
A 2.2.5 Weakening of HPGR Products
As mentioned in the previous section, laboratory experiments have been reported by
various researchers in which the Bond ball work index of HPGR products is less than
that of the feed. The amount of this reduction appears to vary with both material type
and the pressing force used. Observed reductions in the Bond ball work index have
typically been in the range 0-10%. In the approach described in this paper no
allowance has been made for such weakening. However, if HPGR products are
available which can be used to conduct Bond ball work index tests on then Mib values
obtained from such tests can be used in equation 5. Alternatively the Mib values from
Bond ball mill work index tests on HPGR feed material can be reduced by an amount
that the user thinks is appropriate. Until more data become available from full scale
HPGR/ball mill circuits it is suggested that, in the absence of Bond ball mill work
index data on HPGR products, the Mib results from HPGR feed material are reduced
by no more than 5% to allow for the effects of micro-cracking.

A 3 VALIDATION
A 3.1 Tumbling Mill Circuits
The approach described in the previous section was applied to 65 industrial data
sets. The results are shown in App Figure 4. In all cases the specific energy relates
to the tumbling mills contributing to size reduction from the product of the final stage
of crushing to the final grind. Data are presented in terms of equivalent specific
energy at the pinion. In determining what these values were on each of the plants in
the data base it was assumed that power at the pinion was 93.5% of the measured
gross (motor input) power, this figure being typical of what is normally accepted as
being reasonable to represent losses across the motor and gearbox. For gearless
drives (so-called wrap-around motors) a figure of 97% was used.
 45

40

35

30
observed kWh/t

25
abc
20 sabc
ab
15
sab
ss ag
10
ss sag
crush ball
5
rod ball
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
predicted kWh/t

App Figure 4 – Observed vs Predicted Tumbling Mill Specific Energy

A 3.2 Conventional Crushers
Validation of equation 1 used 10 different crushing circuits (18 data sets), including
secondary, tertiary and pebble crushers in AG/SAG circuits. Observed vs predicted
specific energies are given in App Figure 5. The observed specific energies were
calculated from the crusher throughput and the net power draw of the crusher as
defined by:
Net Power = Motor Input Power – No Load Power (12)
No-load power tends to be relatively high in conventional crushers and hence net
power is significantly lower than the motor input power. From examination of the 18
crusher data sets the motor input power was found to be on average 35% higher
than the net power.

2
y = 0.9981x
1.8 2
R = 0.9669
1.6

1.4
observed (kWh/t)

1.2

0.8

0.6

0.4

0.2

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2
predicted (kWh/t)

App Figure 5 – Observed vs Predicted Conventional Crusher Specific Energy

A 3.3 HPGRs
Validation of equation 1 for HPGRs used data from 18 different circuits (35 data sets)
including laboratory, pilot and industrial scale equipment. Observed vs predicted
specific energies are given in App Figure 6. The data relate to HPGRs operating with
specific grinding forces typically in the range 2.5-3.5 N/mm2. The observed specific
energies relate to power delivered by the roll drive shafts. Motor input power for full
scale machines is expected to be 8-10% higher.

y = 1.0006x
3.5 2
R = 0.9514
3
Observed (kWh/t)

2.5

1.5

0.5

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Predicted (kWh/t)

App Figure 6 – Observed vs Predicted HPGR Specific Energy

A 4 WORKED EXAMPLES
A SMC Test® and Bond ball work index test were carried out on a representative ore
sample. The following results were obtained:
SMC Test:
Mia = 19.4 kWh/t
Mic = 7.2 kWh/t
Mih = 13.9 kWh/t
Bond test carried out with a 150 micron closing screen:
Mib = 18.8 kWh/t
Three circuits are to be evaluated:
• SABC
• HPGR/ball mill
• Conventional crushing/ball mill
The overall specific grinding energy to reduce a primary crusher product with a P80 of
100 mm to a final product P80 of 106 µm needs to be estimated.
A 4.1 SABC Circuit
Coarse particle tumbling mill specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 4:
Wa = 0.95 * 19.4 * 4 * 750 ( − ( 0.295 + 750 / 1000000 )
− 100000
− ( 0.295+100000 / 1000000
)
= 9.6 kWh/t
Fine particle tumbling mill specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 5:
(
Wb = 18.8 * 4 * 106
− ( 0.295 +106 / 1000000 )
− 750
− ( 0.295 + 750 / 1000000
)
= 8.4 kWh/t
Pebble crusher specific energy
In this circuit, it is assumed that the pebble crusher feed P80 is 52.5mm. As a rule of
thumb this value can be estimated by assuming that it is 0.75 of the nominal pebble
port aperture (in this case the pebble port aperture is 70mm). The pebble crusher is
set to give a product P80 of 12mm. The pebble crusher feed rate is expected to be
25% of new feed tph.
Combining eq 2 and 7:
Wc = 1.19 * 7.2 * 4 * 12000( − ( 0.295 +12000 / 1000000 )
− 52500
− ( 0.295+ 52500 / 1000000
)
= 1.12 kWh/t when expressed in terms of the crusher feed rate
= 1.12 * 0.25 kWh/t when expressed in terms of the SABC circuit new
feed rate
= 0.3 kWh/t of SAG mill circuit new feed
Total net comminution specific energy:
From eq 3:
WT = 9.6 + 8.4 + 0.3 kWh/t
= 18.3 kWh/t
A 4.2 HPGR/Ball Milling Circuit
In this circuit primary crusher product is reduced to a HPGR circuit feed P80 of 35 mm
by closed circuit secondary crushing. The HPGR is also in closed circuit and reduces
the 35 mm feed to a circuit product P80 of 4 mm. This is then fed to a closed circuit
ball mill which takes the grind down to a P80 of 106 µm.
Secondary crushing specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 7:
(
Wc = 1 * 7.2 * 4 * 35000
− ( 0.295 + 35000 / 1000000 )
− 100000
− ( 0.295+100000 / 1000000
)
= 0.6 kWh/t
HPGR specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 8:
(
Wc = 1 * 13.9 * 4 * 4000
− ( 0.295+ 4000 / 1000000 )
− 35000
− ( 0.295+ 35000 / 1000000
)
= 2.9 kWh/t
Coarse particle tumbling mill specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 4:
Wa = 1 * 19.4 * 4 * 750( − ( 0.295 + 750 / 1000000 )
− 4000
− ( 0.295 + 4000 / 1000000
)
= 4.5 kWh/t
Fine particle tumbling mill specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 5:
(
Wb = 18.8 * 4 * 106
− ( 0.295 +106 / 1000000 )
− 750
− ( 0.295 + 750 / 1000000
)
= 8.4 kWh/t
Total net comminution specific energy:
From eq 3:
WT = 4.5 + 8.4 + 0.6 + 2.9 kWh/t
= 16.4 kWh/t
A 4.3 Conventional Crushing/Ball Milling Circuit
In this circuit primary crusher product is reduced in size to P80 of 6.5 mm via a
secondary/tertiary crushing circuit (closed). This is then fed to a closed circuit ball
mill which grinds to a P80 of 106 µm.
Secondary/tertiary crushing specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 7:
(
Wc = 1 * 7.2 * 4 * 6500
− ( 0.295+ 6500 / 1000000 )
− 100000
− ( 0.295 +100000 / 1000000
)
= 1.7 kWh/t
Coarse particle tumbling mill specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 4:
Wa = 1 * 19.4 * 4 * 750( − ( 0.295 + 750 / 1000000 )
− 6500
− ( 0.295+ 6500 / 1000000
)
= 5.5 kWh/t
Fine particle tumbling mill specific energy
Combining eq 2 and 5:
(
Wb = 18.8 * 4 * 106
− ( 0.295 +106 / 1000000 )
− 750
− ( 0.295 + 750 / 1000000
)
= 8.4 kWh/t
Size distribution correction
Ws = 0.19 * 19.4 * 4 * 6500 ( − ( 0.295+ 6500 / 1000000 )
− 100000
− ( 0.295+100000 / 1000000
)
= 0.9 kWh/t
Total net comminution specific energy:
From eq 3:
WT = 5.5 + 8.4 + 1.7 + 0.9kWh/t
= 16.5 kWh/t