Comminution

Particle Fracture and Liberation

 Mineral
Dressing has long been
regarded to consist of two steps:
 Liberation

 Separation

 Separationis impracticable if the 1st

step has not been successfully
accomplished!
 Particles can consist of a
single mineral; called free
particles

When a particle consists of

2 or more minerals, this is
called locked particles
Liberation
 The essential prerequisite for the
separation of an ore into valuable and
waste fractions
 May be attained by 2 means:
 By size reduction
 By detachment
Fundamentally Important!

Incomplete liberation limits

either GRADE or RECOVERY!
Some definitions…

 Grains, Grain size

 Uncrushed rock

 Particles, Particle size

 Crushed rock
Degree of Liberation, f
 The percentage of a mineral or phase
occurring as free particles in relation to the
total of the minerals in the ore
 Conversely, the degree of locking is the
percentage of minerals that exist as locked
particles
Quantifying f
 Multiple separating tests
 Microscope counting
techniques
 Polarized light
mineragraphy
Two types of Liberation due to Fracture:

 Intergranular
 Happens when the interface between grains is
weak
 Fracture at the grain boundaries; liberation at
the mineral grain
 Transgranular
 Fracture occur across the grain; occurs when
mineral has weak structure
 Most common liberation problem
Liberation by Size Reduction
 To illustrate, consider the mineral below, a
10x10x10 cm cube block w/ cubic grains
of 10 mm/side
 Assuming the following:
 Such a mineral exists
 Crushing operation will yield a homogenously
sized product of 5mm / side cube
 The crystals w/in the rock is fast to each other
Liberation by Size Reduction

10 mm

Gangue
Free
Particles

5 mm
Locked Particles: Middlings
 Contains both valuable and gangue
minerals!
 A large proportion of the difficulties
experienced in mineral separation are
associated with the treatment of these
particles
Types of Middlings
For minerals of unequal abundance:
 The general behavior of the liberation is:
In general…
 The less abundant mineral or phase is not
freed at all unless the particles<grain size
 The more abundant mineral is easily freed
even at particles>grain size
 The more abundant mineral is always freer
than the less abundant one
Liberation by Detachment
 Occurs by preferential fracturing
 No further liberation may be obtained by
additional comminution
 Possible if mineral has:
 Macrostructural weakness (coal beds)
 Microstructural weakness (schists)
 Microstructural differences in physical properties of adjacent
minerals (galena and quartz)
 MECHANISM OF
PARTICLE FRACTURE
Mechanism of Particle Fracture
 Liberation is practically a function of
particle fracture (inter- and trans-)
 This represents a MAJOR COST in any
MP operation!
Mechanism of Particle Fracture
 The breakage of the rock required to
achieve size reduction is ENERGY
INTENSIVE and the operation involved is
considered an ENERGY INEFFICIENT
OPERATION
 The efficiency of energy utilization during
fragmentation of solid particles is only 1%
wrt the new surfaces created!
Griffith’s Theory of Fracturing

 Basic Assumptions
 Single particle fracture
 Except for very small sizes, the ore
particle may be considered to be a
brittle material (the strain is proportional to the
applied stress up to the point of fracture)
Griffith’s Theory of Fracturing
 Observations
 Under stress, the presence of flaws in the
material lead to stress concentration in a solid
a l S tre sses
Extern

Crack
Stressed Bonds
Propagation

External Str
esses
Griffith’s Theory of Fracturing
 Observations
 Chemical bonds at the crack tip ranged from
unstressed to fully strained at the point of
breakage
 Virtually NO STRESS is required to bring about
bond breakage; stress is required to provide the
necessary energy to produce new surfaces!
 Fracture occurs when local strain energy at the
crack tip is just sufficient to provide surface
energy of the 2 new surfaces produced
Griffith’s Criteria of Fracture

2
G
Lcr
 Where
 G = Griffith Stress (critical applied tensile stress)
 ξ = Young’s Modulus
 γ = Surface free energy / unit area crack surface
 Lcr = crack length
Griffith’s Theory
 Requires that a tensile stress exists across
the crack to open it further!
 A uniform compression loading can only
close up the cracks
 A non-uniform compression loading leads
to localized tensile stresses