Rudimentary ball mill in Busia, Uganda

This is rudimentary ball mill in Busia, Uganda. People tend to use very big balls inside for the reason that they do not use primary crushing properly. Thus big ball helps that rocks get crushed. No liners are used and such rudimentary ball mills are broken each in a while, they don’t last in operation longer than just few months when they need to get repaired. Dusty environment and improper maintenance contribute to low efficiency. The capacity is maximum 100 kg per hour.

Answer to miner from Tanzania

This is my answer to miner from Tanzania

Miner from Tanzania said on [2020-10-14 07:02]: Am in the process of making the ball mill,you told me to make it more efficient,I seal with rubber please how do I do that?

You would seal the cover of the ball mill, the piece you use to close it with some rubber, you make a frame of the rubber and you could glue it. This advise relates to using the ball mill with water in its intended mode to avoid wasting time and money with the process of drying of the material that later anyway need to be watered.

In general ball mills should run with water, and not dry, unless there is specific reason why should material be dry, for example in medicine.

It was never my recommendation to make a rudimentary ball mill, as I said that it is waste of money and time.

You are making a machine that will waste many days of money and time and work of other people, machine that handles maybe 100 kg per hour, while for the same cost you could have machine that handles 500 kg per hour.

If you plan something inefficient, you will influence months of not years of your life negatively.

You plan to work 5 times less efficient, every day instead of 2 hours of work, you will work 10 hours. 8 hours wasted every day for how many months? For 3 months? How much loss is that in terms of time, effort, money and let us not forget the most important, gold.

My recommendation was never to use Tanzanian rudimentary ball mills, unless they are ready on the site and you have nothing else to start with during the initial stage of your mining experience. Yet I would never advise investing in it or making it.