Mining companies are always seeking for the best method to reduce energy consumption, especially in the grinding process that usually request about 40% to 75% of the total energy used in a mineral process plant. Under this objective, any effort to reduce the energy consumption in mineral process, which involves slurries, should starts with the characterization of the fluid. Therefore, the main objective of this work involves the rheological characterization of the copper ore slurry from a Peruvian mine deposit. For this study, it was considered to characterize the slurry (66 wt.%) from the output of the ball mill of the mineral concentrating plant. Furthermore, to explore the effect of the concentration of solids on the rheological behavior of those slurries, four additional slurries, at different concentrations (50 wt.%, 60 wt.%, 66 wt.% and 70 wt.%), were produced in the laboratory using a batch type ball mill. Rheological experiments were performed at shear rate ranging from 10-500 s–1 using a rotational rheometer. From those experiments, copper ore slurries show shear thinning behavior at any concentration. The results showed that the apparent viscosity increases with the increment of the concentration. Also, for two slurries with the same concentration, the apparent viscosity increases with the number of coarse particles. The experimental flow curves were fitted with the model of Carreau-Yasuda.
Autor(es):LOPEZ, Joel
CELIS, Cesar
MAZA, Danmer
Año: 2020
Título de la revista: 18th Brazilian Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering
Ciudad: Online, Brazil