This current work sought to determine the significance of corrosive wear in the metal loss during ball milling, at least at laboratory scale. The results showed that although corrosion does play a part in media loss, its impact in a non-sulphide containing environment is not significant (<15%) when compared with that of abrasive wear. The other factors such as ball coating during dry milling and wear resulting from ball-to-ball contact make the determination of the exact contribution difficult. The impact of corrosive wear can be further reduced by the use of more wear resistant ball materials. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.