Abstract: The relationship between mill load，mill sound and mill current is introduced.The sound mechanism of ball mill is briefly described.The influence of filling rate，rotating speed of cylinder and ball size on mill sound analyzed.Detection methods of mill load，soft measurement based on mathematical mode and classifying，mill sound method，vibration method，power method，ultrasonic method and neural network method，is reviewed respectively.Finally， the development direction in mill load detection will be multi-measurement integrated technology，on-line soft measurement technology，the anti-noise performance increasing.

Key words: Mill load, Mill sound, Soft measurement, Neural network