Non-contact acoustic and vibration sensors in Autogenous and Semi-Autogenous (AG/SAG) Mills: a brief review

The complexities associated with controlling Autogenous/Semi-autogenous (AG/SAG) grinding mills are well known. Comprehensive understanding of in-mill AG/SAG process dynamics which define key economic factors (energy consumption, throughput and cost-effective mineral liberation for downstream processing) remain critical to address. Several techniques through mill operators'experience, mill built-in instruments, and simulations are employed, but the approaches are not sustainably reliable. The last few years have seen major research improvement with sensor-based technology, particularly non-contact acoustic and vibration sensors. These sensors, to some extent, have been broadly applied in both laboratory and industrial AG/SAG mills to understand and predict the in-mill process dynamics with promising results. Following on an extensive literature survey, this paper presents a brief review of research into the use of non-contact acoustic and vibration measurements in an AG/SAG grinding mill operation. Refereed/Peer-reviewed