3. Fine fragmentation

While the field of fine fragmentation is vast in terms of granularity, technologies have been practically restricted to a single mode of action involving impact forces. Recently, however, there has been a revival in the use of compression processes, with examples limited to soft materials. A distinction is now being made between fine and ultra-fine domains. The boundary between the two domains corresponds to a d ₈₀ of the order of 20 to 30 µm.

Energy consumption for fine comminution is 5 to 6 kWh/t for coarse grinding and up to 20 to 30 kWh/t for fine grinding.

It should be remembered that fine grinding is the most costly in terms of investment and operating costs, not only in terms of fragmentation, but also, in the case of rocky materials, in terms of all preparation-concentration operations...