<p>Milling of brittle materials shows a lower limit in size reduction, below which grinding cannot proceed further. Experimentally, the smallest particle size is determined by the milling media energy, and it is time independent. Rittinger’s law, which applies to fine grinding, does not consider any lower limit in size, leading to nonphysical results. As a modification, a number of dampening parameters that gradually reduce grinding efficiency have already been proposed. In this work, the grinding inhibition is linked to an energy balance between the powder’s specific surface energy and the energy density, that is the kinetic energy of the milling media divided by the impacted volume. Introducing the energy equilibrium concept, the comminution kinetics can be formally described by a JMAK-like equation. Certain parallels are indicated. Validation of this formulation has been conducted on published and original data.</p> Graphical abstract <p></p>