Ore crushing is a process of destruction minerals pieces into smaller by the action of the external forces, which overcome the internal cohesive forces between the particles.
Сrushing is based on external forces – stretching, compression, shifting, bending, that impact on weakened section of the piece. For the ore crushing such features as strength and crushability pieces are the most important. There are such basic methods of crushing minerals: crushing, chopping, shearing, abrasion, impact. Machinery, which helps to crush minerals, is called the crusher. The main types of crushers:
Ore crushing process is usually combined with a screening. This is a process when all incoming material passes first screening, and the crusher receives only large pieces. There are closed-loop and open-loop of crushing minerals. During the open-loop of crushing the ore passes through the crusher only once, and during the closed-loop the ore after crushing is fed to screening, where insufficient fragmented pieces again fed to crushing.
Grain is produced with size more than 5 mm during the process of crushing the ore. Minerals are crushed to various sizes, depending on their mineral composition, concentration and nature of the use. During the mineral dressing crushing is used for separation of aggregates of metallic and nonmetallic minerals, which are contained in the source material.
After all the steps of crushing the ore is fed to the wet or dry shredding.