Towards the end of the 1990s readily available personal Computers became sufficiently powerful - when combined with an efficient numerical code - to use discrete element modelling (DEM) in two dimensions for models involving a few hundred to a few thousand particles in commercially available packages. Some proprietary codes reported up to 200,000 particles [Herbst, J.A., Nordell, L., 2001. Optimization of the design of sag mill internals using high fidelity simulation. In: Vancouver, B.C., Barratt, D.J., Allan, M.J., Mular, A.L. (Eds.), Proceedings of the SAG Conference, University of British Columbia, IV, 150-164; Cleary, P.W., 2001 a. Charge behaviour and power consumption in ball mills: Sensitivity to mill operating conditions, liner geometry and charge composition. Int. J. Min. Process. 63, 79-114 and Cleary, P.W., 2001b. Recent advances in DEM modelling of tumbling mills. Minerals Eng. 14, 1295-1319]. In early 2000, JKMRC and CSIRO-MIS agreed to an informal collaboration with the objective of testing various DEM approaches against detailed process measurements. The initial collaboration demonstrated that 3D-DEM using spheres was sufficiently realistic for flow patterns and power estimation within tumbling mills. The results were reported in papers which were presented at SAG 2001 and in the technical literature [Morrison, R.D., Cleary, P.W., Valery. W., 2001. Comparing power and performance trends from DEM and JK modelling. SAG 2001, Department of Mining and Minerals Process Engineering. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, 284-300: Cleary. P.W., Morrison, R., Morrell, S., 2003. Comparison of DEM and experiment for a scale model SAG mill. Int. J. Min. Process. 68, 129-165]. The commencement of the CRC for Sustainable Resource Processing in 2003 provided an opportunity to formalize the collaboration and bring increased resources to bear. The objective of this collaboration is to develop a virtual comminution machine (VCM). The VCM will allow a comminution machine design which exists as a Suitably detailed design in a 3D Computer aided design file (CAD) to simulate processing an ore (which has been characterised by suitable test work) to predict progeny, power consumption, wear and even machine component loadings. This paper reports on the substantial progress made to date towards a practical Virtual Comminution Machine. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd.