Abstract: The use of steel balls in the process of ore milling can cause some serious problems, such as high energy consumption and over-grinding. In this paper, fine-grained magnetite was used as the research object. The effects of ceramic and steel balls on mineral grinding performance were investigated by pure mineral grinding experiments. The response surface method was used to analyze the influence order of grinding operation factors and their interaction on grinding fineness (γ_{< 0.074 mm}). The results showed that the grinding effect of ceramic balls was significantly better than that of steel balls when the particle size of the in-ground magnetite was less than 0.15 mm. Under the optimal grinding comparison conditions, the grinding effect of ceramic balls was better than that of steel balls. The specific energy consumption in the grinding process was reduced by 35.82%, the noise was reduced by 21.85%, and the technical efficiency was increased by 26.12%. In grinding products, γ_{< 0.074 mm} increased by 5.96%, while γ_{< 0.023 mm} decreased by 32.49%. The results of the response surface method showed that the influence order of magnetite grinding fineness γ_{< 0.074 mm} was as follows: medium size > filling rate > grinding concentration. The interaction between the medium size and filling rate has a highly significant effect on the grinding fineness of magnetite, while the interaction between the filling rate and grinding concentration is not significant. The results can be valuable for the fine grinding of ceramic balls in black metal ore.