In metal ore beneficiation, grinding consumes far more power than crushing and much more steel, making it a major cost driver. The principle of “more crushing, less grinding” aims to reduce costs by strengthening crushing and easing the grinding load.
Grinding accounts for the vast majority of electricity and steel consumption. To cut costs, part of the grinding workload should be shifted upstream: fine crushing lowers the feed size to the mill, increases mill throughput, and reduces specific power consumption. The key lies in coordinating fine-crushing equipment with screening. A cone crusher with an optimized cavity profile can produce a finer, more uniform product; interparticle crushing generates fewer flaky and needle-shaped particles and a more uniform size distribution, which favors selective liberation. However, “more crushing, less grinding” does not mean pursuing fineness blindly—the ultimate goal is sufficient liberation of valuable minerals from gangue.
Screening is equally important. Pre-screening removes qualified fines before crushing, avoiding unnecessary crushing, while check screening returns oversized particles to the crusher to ensure the mill feed meets the target size. Proper screening configuration helps prevent over-crushing.
In short, the importance of pre-grinding pretreatment lies in coordinating crushing and screening to feed the mill with properly sized material, thereby reducing the grinding load and lowering power, steel, and overall line costs.
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