The discrete element method has been used to study the lift F L on a stationary disc immersed coaxially in a slowly rotating cylinder containing a granular material. In a tall granular column, F L rises with the immersion depth h, but reaches a roughly constant asymptote at large h, in agreement with previous studies. Our results indicate that the argument in some earlier studies that F L is proportional to the static stress gradient is incorrect. Instead, our results show that the lift is caused by an asymmetry in the dilation and shear rate between the regions above and below the disc. We argue that the cause of the lift is similar to that in fluids, namely that it arises as a result of the disturbance in the velocity and density fields around the body due to its motion relative to the granular bed.Positive and negative values of ðz2hÞ correspond to the regions below and above the disc, respectively. Here the data of (a) and (b) correspond to H562 d p and H5222 d p , respectively, for a disc of thickness t510 d p and different depths of immersionh. Panel (c) shows the difference in the solids fraction (averaged in the same manner) between the lower and upper surfaces of the disc; the blue triangles and red asterisks are data for the short and tall columns, respectively. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] AIChE Journal