In mineral processing, sufficiently liberated target minerals by grinding is a prerequisite for successful flotation. Rod grinding produces particles with a narrower size range and better floatability through line contacts, but with a lower production capacity compared to balls (point contacts). As a result, balls remain as the preferred media for most dressing plants. However, balls produce many ultra-coarse and ultra-fine particles. Hence, grinding media with multiple contact forms could offer a compromise, which can combine the advantages of both rods and balls. In this paper, the performance of short cylinders which comminute minerals in point and line contact modes and ball grinding media were compared and evaluated using chalcopyrite as a test mineral. The grinding results show that short cylinders generate more angular particles with intermediate particle sizes and have a higher grinding efficiency compared with balls. Short cylinders selectively produce more active {1 1 2} surfaces of chalcopyrite, which possess higher adsorption capacity with collectors and were preferentially floated as the concentrate. Flotation tests confirm that the real ore particles ground by short cylinders have higher liberation degree and exhibit a higher flotation recovery of chalcopyrite than ore ground using balls. This study provides a reference scheme for the grinding and flotation optimization of valuable minerals.

在选矿中，通过研磨充分释放目标矿物是成功浮选的先决条件。棒磨产生的颗粒尺寸范围更窄，通过线接触具有更好的可浮性，但与球（点接触）相比，生产能力较低。因此，球仍然是大多数选矿厂的首选培养基。然而，球会产生许多超粗和超细颗粒。因此，具有多种接触形式的研磨介质可以提供一种折衷方案，它可以结合杆和球的优点。本文以黄铜矿为试验矿物，对采用点线接触方式粉碎矿物的短圆柱体与球磨介质的性能进行了比较和评价。研磨结果表明，与球相比，短圆柱产生更多的具有中等粒径的角形颗粒，并且具有更高的研磨效率。短气缸选择性地产生更活跃的{1 1  2} 黄铜矿表面，对捕收剂具有较高的吸附能力，优先浮选为精矿。浮选试验证实，与球磨相比，短圆柱磨矿颗粒的游离度更高，黄铜矿浮选回收率更高。该研究为有价矿物的磨矿和浮选优化提供了参考方案。