High performance attrition in stirred mills

Attrition is applied to sandy material to remove particle surface contamination or undesired cuttings before flotation. Working in stirred mills and applying special process conditions, attrition can be intensified enabling abrasion of particles in the size range between 20 μm and 1000 μm. Subsequently, the resulting highly contaminated fines fraction <5 μm can be separated. The applied process conditions preventing particle breakage are characterized by low particle stress, using small grinding media, low energy input and a high solids content.