Developing an experimental procedure for charge media wear prediction

Typical mining operating costs can be divided between extraction (30% to 70%), comminution (30 % to 50 %) and separation (5 % to 20 %). Comminution process costs, representing an important contribution to mining operating costs, can themselves be divided roughly between energy (50 %) and liner/charge wear (50 %). Developing the ability of predicting mill wear will allow a more accurate estimation of wear costs. In this paper, an overview of abrasive and corrosive wear mechanisms is made from which an experimental procedure is proposed that allows the prediction of the effect of changes in charge media composition. Experimental results for four cases are presented and used to predict changes in media wear.