Vast quantities of gangue from coal mining and processing have accumulated over the years and caused significant economic and environmental problems in China. For high added-value utilization of alumina rich coal gangue (ARCG), a mild hydro-chemical process was investigated to extract alumina. The influences of NaOH concentration, mass ratio of alkali to gangue, reaction temperature and reaction time were systematically studied. An alumina extraction rate of 94.68% was achieved at the condition of NaOH concentration 47.5%, alkali to gangue ratio of 6, reaction temperature of 260°C and reaction time of 120 min. The obtained leaching residues were characterized through X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive spectrometer. Research confirmed that kaolinite the main alumina-bearing phase of ARCG can be decomposed and transformed to Na 8 Al 6 Si 6 O 24 (OH) 2 (H 2 O) 2 and Ca 2 Al 2 SiO 6 (OH) 2 at relatively low temperature and short reaction time. Additionally, Na 8 Al 6 Si 6 O 24 (OH) 2 (H 2 O) 2 and Ca 2 Al 2 SiO 6 (OH) 2 are unstable and will transform to alumina-free phase NaCaHSiO 4 under the optimal conditions, which is the major reason for high alumina extraction rates.

Grinding plays an important role in mining, construction, metallurgy, chemical, coal and other basic industries. In terms of beneficiation, grinding is the most energy consuming operation. So, reasonable grinding conditions according to the properties of ores is the key to obtain good grinding results and reduce energy consumption and resource waste. In this paper, Tongkeng and Gaofeng polymetallic complex ores are taken as research objects, and the effects of grinding law based on single factor condition test and the grinding parameters optimization based on response surface method were studied for two kinds of ores. The results show that grinding time is a significant factor affecting the particle size composition. The suitable grinding concentration of Tongkeng ore and Gaofeng ore is 70% and 75%, respectively. The effect of mill filling ratio on Gaofeng ore is not obvious. The rotational rate has little effect on the grinding technical efficiency. The regression model equations obtained by response surface method are extremely significant, and the relative errors of prediction are all within 1%, indicating high reliability of fitting equations. The order of influencing factors of the two ores is as follows: grinding time > filling ratio > grinding concentration. For Tongkeng ore, the optimized grinding conditions are grinding time 5.4 min, grinding concentration 67% and filling ratio 35%. For Gaofeng ore, the optimized grinding conditions are grinding time 3.8 min, grinding concentration 73% and filling ratio 34%.

To solve the problem involved in the grinding of cassiterite–polymetallic sulfide ore in which fine grinding causes the cassiterite to be overground or coarse grinding leads to inadequate liberation of sulfide minerals, the influences of the ball grinding medium on the size distribution of the grinding product were investigated. Two types of ball filling patterns, namely, single-sized and multi-sized ball grinding media, were adopted in wet batch grinding tests. The results show that increasing the grinding time resulted in a rapid increase in minus 0.038 mm particles and a slight increase in the Sn grade in this fine size fraction. The smaller the ball filling fraction was, the more obviously the ball size affected the size distribution of the grinding product, the variation of which with the ball size became complicated with the increase in the ball filling fraction. Obvious jumping phenomena in the plotting of the percentages of the discussed size fractions against the ball size were observed when the balling filling fraction was larger than 30%; the most obvious jumping phenomena took place at a 35% ball filling fraction. The results of the grinding tests with the multi-sized media show that the size distribution of the grinding product was closely related to that of the mixed ball sizes and their composition percentages.

The particle size composition of grinding products will significantly affect the technical and economic indexes of subsequent separation operations. The polymetallic complex ores from Tongkeng and Gaofeng are selected as the research object in this paper. Through the JK drop-weight test, the batch grinding test, and the population-balance kinetic model of grinding with the Simulink platform, the grinding characteristics of the two types of ores and the particle-size-composition prediction methods of grinding products are studied. The results show that the impact-crushing capacity of Tongkeng ore and Gaofeng ore are “medium” grade and “soft” grade, respectively. The crushing resistance of Tongkeng ore increases with the decrease in particle size, and the crushing effect is more easily affected by particle size than that of Gaofeng ore. For the same ore, the accuracy order of the three methods is: PSO–BP method > JK drop-weight method > BIII method. For the same method, only the BIII method has higher accuracy in predicting Gaofeng ore than Tongkeng ore, and other methods have better accuracy in predicting Tongkeng ore than Gaofeng ore. The prediction accuracy of the BIII method is inferior to that of the JK drop-weight method and the PSO–BP method and is easily affected by the difference in mineral properties. The PSO–BP method has a high prediction accuracy and fast model operation speed, but the accuracy and speed of the iterative results are easily affected by parameters such as algorithm program weight and threshold. The parameter-solving process of each prediction method is based on different simplifications and assumptions. Therefore, appropriate hypothetical theoretical models should be selected according to different ore properties for practical application.

The degree of difficulty in crushing an ore depends on the composition of the ore itself. Due to different types and compositions of ores, the crushing mechanism of ores during the crushing process is also different. In order to quantitatively analyze the impact crushing characteristics of mineral components in ores, this paper takes pure mineral quartz, pyrrhotite, and pyrite as the research objects and uses the universal drop weight impact crushing test equipment and standard test methods developed by the JK Mineral Research Center of the University of Queensland, Australia, to conduct JK drop weight tests on these three pure mineral samples. The results show that the particle size distribution of impact crushing products is wide, covering all particle sizes from “0” to close to the feed particle size, and the yield distribution of each product particle size is relatively uniform. There are critical values and “energy barrier” effects for the impact-specific crushing energy. The impact-specific crushing energy has a significant impact on the particle size composition and crushing effect of the crushing product, and there is an interactive effect between the impact-specific crushing energy and the feed particle size and mineral type. The impact crushing resistance of the sample can be characterized by using Mohs hardness, impact crushing characteristic parameters, impact crushing resistance level, and the yield limit value t10 of the characteristic crushing particle size. The overall characterization results have good consistency.