Abstract The Bond method for ball mil designing has been used for 60 years. Based on the Work Index test, such method is applied mostly in traditional circuit configuration, which includes multi-staged crushing, followed by rod and ball milling. On the other hand, simulation is a widespread and used technique for comminution, classification modeling, and simulation. Even though both methods are complementary, there is no effective integration between them. This work shows a technique designed to integrate both energy and modeling approaches for estimating and improving ball mill grinding performance. The work is based on industrial data survey results, as well as on laboratory testing, the latter developed specifically for such a purpose. The technique was validated under an industrial environment for assessing the obtained results.