Influence of thermal pretreatment on quartz crushability

Abstract

The paper deals with an influence of thermal pretreatment on the crushability of quartz. The sample of lump quartz from the deposit of Švedlár (Eastern Slovakia) was subjected to primary crushing in the jaw crusher PS D-160 with a discharge of 10–20 mm to obtain a grain size fraction of 8 –12 mm. This fraction was thermally pretreated in microwave and muffle ovens. Subsequently, unpretreated and pretreated samples of quartz were crushed again in the secondary jaw crusher VCM-3 with a discharge of 0,2–3 mm. The products of the secondary crushing were been subjected to the grain size analyses. Finally, the results of the grain size analyses were plotted. The bond work index and the relative work index according to the Berry and Bruce method were calculated. The obtained results point to the fact that the thermal pretreatment results in a work index reduction by 5 – 21 %.

Keywords

• quartz
• crushing
• thermal pretreatment
• work index