Abstract
Since the installation of Isa-Mills, major improvements/studies have been made to make it more efficient. In 2006, ceramic media were introduced in the market to identify the cost effective type. This was achieved by the quality studies on different type of media both at the laboratory and pilot plant scale. In this present study, a 100 hours test was carried out in order to evaluate the wear characteristics of ceramic media branded candidate media and was compared to the standard media using the M100 Isa mill at the pilot plant. The evaluation was in the basis of comparing the relative performance of the candidate media and standard media in terms of wear rate, energy consumption and the finest of grind, whereby the following results were generated. A seasoned charge graph of both media at d80 μm vs. running time (hr) was generated and clearly highlighted the points of reaching seasoned charge for both media however, this didn’t help much in terms of finding the difference between the media because one cannot confirm the points of reaching seasoned charge by just looking at the graph but this can be confirmed by the actual size analysis of the media beads. A further comparison was made by comparing the finest of grinds from the Isa-Mill discharge and it does not necessarily gives a clear view of which media is better compared to the other. The media wear rate and energy consumption of both media were compared and the standard media showed a big variance from the candidate media in terms of wear and energy. The standard media stood out to be the cost-effective type compared to the candidate media. Its utilization in the plant will then be suggested.