Comminution

Comminution is a group of mineral processing processes used in extractive metallurgy to manipulate the particle sizes of rocks. Comminution processes are used to turn rocks into powder because subsequent processing generally requires finer particle sizes. A particle becomes liberated when the mineral of interest is physically free from the other minerals present (the gangue).

The machinery used for comminution can be divided into broad classes based on the size of the fragments they produce. Devices producing relatively coarse chunks are called crushers and those that produce finer particles are called grinders. See those articles for detailed descriptions of the types of crushers and grinders that are used in various circumstances.

See Also

• Crusher
• Rock crusher
• Grinder