An open-circuit ball mill is a type of grinding mill typically used in mineral processing where the mill is operated without any classification or separation stage in between its output and input. In other words, material fed into the mill is ground and then discharged directly, without re-circulating any oversize particles back to the mill for further grinding. This contrasts with a closed-circuit ball mill, where material is passed through a classifier or separator to ensure that only sufficiently fine material is sent on to the next stage, while oversized particles are returned to the mill for further grinding. Open-circuit ball milling is often used for coarse grinding applications and where a controlled product size is not critically important.
