LAUSR

Abstract Egyptian feldspar ores are usually of low grade and need beneficiation to improve their grade for industrial applications. Therefore, feldspar should be ground to a reasonable liberation degree prior to beneficiation processes. Mineralogical studies showed that a good degree of liberation is below 0.25 mm. This work aims to optimize the grinding parameters for an Egyptian feldspar ore that ensures maximum production of size −250 + 45 µm and minimum % − 45 µm. Grinding was performed using a laboratory ball mill. The results displayed that the grinding performance was increased with decreasing the solid content with U between 0.5 and 1. A high milling rate was achieved at ball filling 20–30%. The ideal ball-filling ratio was determined to be 25%, with less production of fines. Hence, it was decided to crush the feed to less than 2 mm before grinding with 36.6 mm balls to reduce fines.