Purpose. To investigate an elastic plate as a means of identifying energy-efficient fracturing of the ore, with the objective of providing a basis for developing an efficient ball mill ore-mass-induced overload control device. Research methods. The analysis methods, the methods of the free oscillations theory, the energy balance method, the methods of the rock fracture theory, the methods of physical modeling, the experimental method, the method of measurement and comparison were used. The

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... tific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time a method for determining the concentration of large ore pieces in a ball mill drum has been theoretically substantiated and experimentally verified by measuring energy consumption for their fracturing. The practical significance of the research conducted is high, as its findings open up the prospect of developing efficient means of measuring the loading and overloading of a ball mill with ore without running the risk of plunging the process unit into an emergency mode. It has been shown that the concentration of coarse solids in a ball mill can be determined by the energy consumption during the process of fracturing the solids, in particular, by the measured deformation of the elastic elements or by the duration of fracturing. The deformation of an elastic element when a certain-mass ball falls down from a constant height depends on the stiffness of the former. In case ore is placed on the elastic element, that element's deformation is conditioned both by its stiffness and the volume of the solids. In the event of the constant stiffness of the elastic element, the deformation difference will depend only on the volume of the ore fractured. The verification of the theoretical points by experimental research has shown the correctness of the former.