Abstract: With the increasing depletion of rich ore resources，the efficient development of refractory fine-grained disseminated iron ore has become the key to the sustainable development of mining industry. Traditional ball mills have problems such as high energy consumption，uneven particle size distribution， and serious over-grinding in the fine grinding process. The application efficiency and energy saving mecha⁃ nism of tower mill in fine grinding of iron ore were systematically studied based on the technical transforma⁃ tion of secondary grinding in an iron mine in Anhui Province. By comparing and analyzing the grinding effect of the tower mill and the ball mill，it is found that the tower mill is significantly better than the ball mill in terms of energy consumption，medium consumption，unit volume efficiency and separation index. The indus⁃ trial test shows that after the original ball mill was replaced by tower mill，the power consumption per ton of ore decreased from 7.57 kW·h/t to 4.30 kW·h/t，the medium consumption decreased from 0.55 kg/t to 0.20 kg/t，the unit volume efficiency increased from 0.43 t/(m³·h) to 1.02 t/(m³·h)，and the iron recovery rate of concentrate increased significantly from 75.49% to 80.35%. The research shows that the advantage of tower mill technology is not only the direct energy saving and consumption reduction，but also the great value add⁃ ed brought by the systematic improvement of the subsequent separation index by improving the particle size characteristics of the product and optimizing the degree of mineral dissociation.

Key words: tower mill, iron ore, secondary grinding, energy saving and consumption reduction, parti? cle size character, monomer liberation