NPF «Electrohidrodinamica» (St. Petersburg, Russia):

Martynov N. V., Deputy Director, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, Associate Professor, nik_mart51@mail.ru
Avramov D. V., Chairman of the Board of Directors, Candidate of Engineering Sciences, dvavramov@gmail.com

St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (St. Petersburg, Russia):

Dobromirov V. N., Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, Professor, viktor.dobromirov@mail.ru

Traditional technologies for the disintegration of kimberlite ores used at diamond mining enterprises demonstrate fairly high rates of damage to diamond crystals in staged crushing, which negatively affects the quality of marketable products and may reduce their value. The article substantiates the possibility of developing a technology for grinding diamond-bearing rocks, based on the use of the electrohydraulic effect and ensuring rock opening without fracturing the diamonds. The technology was developed using model mixes instead of actual kimberlite and diamond. The substitute minerals were represented by equivalent materials with the defining properties calculated using the similarity method. The most preferred operating conditions for the specially designed electro-hydraulic unit were selected based on the results of an experimental selection of capacitance parameters for the storage capacitors, the voltage of the electric pulse supplied to the arrester, and the frequency and number of discharges used to crush the substitute mineral to isolate the crystals. When grinding model mix samples in the electro-hydraulic unit, the garnet crystals used for modeling diamond crystals were not damaged during the processing. The fracturing present in the crystals as a result of electro-hydraulic disintegration was not developing. The experiments confirmed the high selectivity of grinding for various-strength materials when selecting the best operating conditions for the unit. This allows recommending further elaboration of the electro-hydraulic technology for grinding diamond-bearing ores at their final processing stages.

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