Method of fragmenting and/or weakening a material by means of high voltage discharges

A method of fragmenting and/or weakening a material, in particular rock or ore, by means of high voltage discharges, comprising:

• a) providing a process zone between at least two electrodes arranged at a distance relative to each other, which process zone is flooded with a process liquid;
• b) feeding through the process zone the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened;
• c) generating high voltage discharges between the at least two electrodes while feeding the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened through the process zone for fragmenting and/or weakening the material;
• d) feeding process liquid into the process zone and discharging process liquid from the process zone while feeding the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened through the process zone and while generating high voltage discharges between the at least two electrodes;
• e) determining a degree of turbidity of the process liquid in the process zone or near the process zone or of the process liquid discharged from the process zone
• or determining a difference in the degrees of turbidity of the process liquid fed into the process zone and of the process liquid discharged from the process zone;
• f) comparing the determined degree of turbidity with a reference value for the degree of turbidity or the determined difference in the degrees of turbidity with a reference value for the difference in the degrees of turbidity;
• and
• g) changing the generation of high voltage discharges and/or of the feeding of the material through the process zone depending on a detected deviation of the determined degree of turbidity from the reference value for the degree of turbidity or of the determined difference in the degrees of turbidity from the reference value for the difference in the degrees of turbidity in such a manner that, when subsequently the steps e) and f) are repeated, no deviation is detected or the detected deviation is smaller.

A method of fragmenting and/or weakening a material, in particular rock or ore, by means of high voltage discharges, comprising the steps:

• a) providing a process zone between at least two electrodes arranged at a distance relative to each other, which process zone is flooded with a process liquid;
• b) feeding through the process zone the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened;
• c) generating high voltage discharges between the at least two electrodes while feeding the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened through the process zone for fragmenting and/or weakening the material;
• d) feeding process liquid into the process zone and discharging process liquid from the process zone while feeding the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened through the process zone and while generating high voltage discharges between the at least two electrodes;
• e) determining the electrical resistance between at least two of the at least two electrodes, between at least one of the at least two electrodes and at least one auxiliary electrode or between at least two auxiliary electrodes before the high voltage discharges occur;
• f) comparing the determined electrical resistance with a reference value for the electrical resistance;
• and
• g) changing the feeding of material through the process zone, the generating of high voltage discharges between the at least two electrodes, the distance between the at least two electrodes and/or the feeding and discharging of process liquid into the process zone and from the process zone depending on a detected deviation of the determined resistance from the reference value in such a manner that, when subsequently the steps e) and f) are repeated, no deviation is detected or the detected deviation is smaller.

A method of fragmenting and/or weakening a material, in particular rock or ore, by means of high voltage discharges, comprising:

• a) providing a process zone between at least two electrodes arranged at a distance relative to each other, which process zone is flooded with a process liquid;
• b) feeding through the process zone the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened;
• c) generating high voltage discharges between the at least two electrodes while feeding the material that is to be fragmented and/or weakened through the process zone for fragmenting and/or weakening the material;
• d) determining data representing an image of the fragmented and/or weakened material that is discharged from the process zone
• or
• determining data representing an image of the material that is fed to the process zone, determining data representing an image of the fragmented and/or weakened material that is discharged from the process zone and determining the degree of fragmentation and/or weakening of the material by comparing the determined data representing the image of the material that is fed to the process zone with the determined data representing the image of the fragmented and/or weakened material that is discharged from the process zone;
• e) comparing the data representing the image of the fragmented and/or weakened material with reference data for the image of fragmented and/or weakened material
• or
• comparing the determined degree of fragmentation and/or weakening of the material with a reference value for the degree of fragmentation and/or weakening;
• and
• f) changing the generation of high voltage discharges and/or of the feeding of the material through the process zone depending on a detected deviation of the determined data representing the image from the reference data or depending on a detected deviation of the determined degree of fragmentation and/or weakening of the material from the reference value in such a manner that, when subsequently the steps d) and e) are repeated, no deviation is detected or the detected deviation is smaller.