Okuzeka
Oil, Gas & Mining vocabulary · Ore Processing

Grinding

Meaning in oil, gas & mining, with examples

/ˈɡraɪndɪŋ/nounCommon term

In oil, gas & mining, grinding means: The stage after crushing in which ore is ground into a fine powder in rotating mills so that the valuable mineral grains are freed from the waste rock.

In Turkish: öğütme

How it is used

Often the most energy-hungry step in a plant. Common mills are SAG (semi-autogenous grinding) mills and ball mills; operators talk about grind size, mill throughput, mill liners and grinding media (steel balls). The verb is 'grind' (ground, ground).

Example sentences

  1. Finer grinding improved gold recovery by 3 percent.

  2. The grinding circuit uses one SAG mill and two ball mills.

Common collocations

  • grinding circuit
  • grinding mill
  • grinding media
  • SAG mill
  • ball mill
  • crusherA machine that breaks large rocks into smaller pieces. Crushing is the first step in ore processing, before grinding.
  • flotationA process that separates valuable minerals from waste: chemicals make the mineral particles stick to air bubbles, which rise to form a froth that is skimmed off.
  • recoveryThe percentage of the valuable metal in the ore that a processing plant actually manages to capture in its final product.
  • throughputThe amount of material that passes through a pipeline, plant or terminal in a given period, such as barrels per day or tonnes per hour.

More terms: Ore Processing

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: