Fine screening and mill relining technology: great news from two regular comminution sponsors

Derrick Corporation is a family-owned and operated company and has been a regular sponsor of MEI's comminution conferences, so it is good to welcome them back to join the other 17 sponsors already signed up for Comminution '25.

Derrick Corporation is a pioneer of wet and dry fine screening and their latest designs are commonly used now in grinding circuits as alternatives to hydrocyclones. Although the late Prof. Alban Lynch was involved with hydrocyclones for very many years, in his conversation with me he said that "the way they are used now is an absolute nonsense, with circulating loads in some cases of well above 200%. The future is high frequency screens.....it is very clear that these screens are so much better than hydrocyclones."

By classifying by size-only, screens, compared to hydrocyclones, give a sharper separation with multidensity feeds and reduce overgrinding of the dense minerals. 

Some of the Derrick team at the 2022 SME Meeting in Salt Lake City

At Comminution '16 Elizma Ford, of Mintek, South Africa, evaluated the potential throughput benefit of adopting Derrick fine screening technology and  concluded that it is becoming apparent that the ability of these machines to accurately classify by size only at efficiencies in the mid 90% range, as fine as 45 micron, has resulted in a paradigm shift in milling circuits, replacing hydrocyclones in the closing of secondary and tertiary circuits. At Comminution '18 Martyn Hay, of Eurus Mineral Consultants, South Africa, also emphasised that over the past decade there have been a number of success stories where cyclones have been replaced by wet screening resulting in improved grinding efficiency, higher throughput, lower operating work index, better liberation and increased recovery in downstream flotation. He highlighted that inefficiencies in classification account for the majority of metal loss from the milling/flotation process as well as excessive mill power draw.

And I take the opportunity here of congratulating another regular comminution conference sponsor, Australia’s Russell Mineral Equipment (RME), a global leader in the design, manufacture and supply of grinding mill relining technologies and services, who was named last month as the winner of Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers Export Award category and received a Top Ten Gold Award at the Australian Manufacturing Forum Event  held in Sydney. Australia’s 50 Most Innovative Manufacturers is an annual initiative aimed at recognising excellence in manufacturing across Australia. Congratulations RME and we look forward to seeing your huge team again at Comminution '25.

The RME team at Comminution '23

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