Cone crushing technologies comparison with traditional crushing and grinding technologies

Autogenous grinding (AG) and SAG technologies displaced multistage crushing and rod/ ball milling circuits as they were simpler and offered lower capital and overall operating costs, even though they were often demonstrably less efficient in the use of comminution energy. AG and SAG mills were also ideal for handling wet, sticky, clay-rich, and oxidised ores, allowing the elimination of the traditional washing plant normally required for such materials.

Cone Crushing Plant

With the progressive global depletion of easily treated ores, harder, tougher, and more abrasive primary ores are being targeted for treatment, and energy efficiency will become steadily more important from both economic and environmental perspectives. These ores may be well suited to SAG mill treatment in the context of media competency, but this treatment path is grossly inefficient in the application of energy for size reduction.

The circuit developed in the study referred to above represents a return to the traditional multistage crushing/ball milling circuit. The difference now is that, with Cone Crusher HP in the tertiary crushing step, energy efficiencies are elevated to such a degree that overall operating costs are much lower than for the equivalent SAG mill circuit. When the potential for lower specific capital costs also is considered, the additional circuit complexity of the Cone crusher-based plant can more readily be justified.

Just as the traditional multistage crushing/ball milling circuit has survived in selected applications, semiautogenous milling will of course also survive and remain the appropriate choice for some ores. It is believed, however, that Cone crusher circuits represent the next generation of hard-rock comminution plant design, as semiautogenous milling did several decades ago.