Estimation of the wear rate associated with ball mill of Mahd Ad Dahab gold mine, Saudi Arabia (KSA)

Purpose. This study aims to estimate the wear of the middle chrome grinding balls in both dry and wet grinding media. The selected ball mill for this study is located at Mahd Ad Dahab Gold Mine, Saudi Arabia. Methods. The amount of wear is determined based on the decrease in the balls weight with respect to grinding time. Findings. The results show that, the loss in the balls weight is proportionally related to their diameters. Also, the amount of wear is reduced by almost 12% when using wet grinding than dry medium. Originality. This study provides a methodology to evaluate the performance efficiency of grinding operation as a function of the amount of wear results in the grinding medium. Practical implications. Grinding is an intrinsic step in almost all mineral processing. Such step is very expensive; but, it is essentially required to reduce the size of the run-of-mine (ROM) material, to liberate valuable minerals from the ore matrix and to increase the surface area for higher reactivity. Thus, this study sheds light on the cost of wear rate associated with ball mill at Mahd Ad Dahab Gold Mine, Saudi Arabia, and its significant impact on the efficiency of grinding operation.