A mineral liberation study of grain boundary fracture based on measurements of the surface exposure after milling

Leißner, Thomas; Hoang, Duong Huu; Rudolph, Martin; Heinig, Thomas; Bachmann, K.‐H.; Gutzmer, Jens; Schubert, Heinrich; Peuker, Urs A.

doi:10.1016/j.minpro.2016.08.014

Cited by 45 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Additional problems can be derived from sample preparation; this needs to prevent the agglomeration of particles so that automated mineralogy techniques do not consider it as a single particle [28]. Moreover, some stereological errors are made with the use of mineralogical techniques based on the analysis of polished sections [29,30]; however, several methods were proposed to introduce a correction or provide suggestions for making the estimation [31].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Mineralogical Comparison between HPGR and Ball Mill Products of a Sn-Ta Ore

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The mineralogy and liberation characteristics of the comminuted Penouta leucogranite host of the Sn-Ta ore were determined. Grinding developed by a combination of high-pressure grinding rolls (HPGR) followed by a ball mill (BM) was compared with a single ball mill process. The mineral characteristics of the grinding products were analyzed using a Tescan Integrated Mineralogical Analyzer (TIMA-X) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The ore contains 103 ppm of Ta and is mainly composed of quartz, albite, microcline, muscovite, and kaolinite. Nb, Ta-rich minerals are columbite-(Mn) and tantalite-(Mn), as well as minor microlite and wodginite. The liberation in the product is high in the size fraction of less than 250 µm (51-52 wt % for columbite-group minerals (CGM) and 74-80 wt % for cassiterite) and reduced in larger particles (8.8-17 wt % for CGM and 28-37 wt % for cassiterite). The recovery in the −250 µm fraction was high, while in the larger fraction it is limited, remaining up to 80 ppm in some tailings. The combined use of HPGR and a BM reduces the particle size distribution of the product and, thus, increases the liberation of the ores. Smaller fractions can be treated directly using gravity methods; however, particles of a size greater than +250 µm should be ground more.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitative Mineralogical Comparison between HPGR and Ball Mill Products of a Sn-Ta Ore

et al. 2018

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“…Automated SEM analysis techniques including MLA are widely applied to characterize textural properties of ore that are then used to design an appropriate mineral processing approach [12][13][14][15]. Specifically, the liberation of phases with high economic impact from different gangue material can be investigated [14,16]. They are also used to solve environmental problems e.g., to quantitatively estimate the Pb leaching potential of a slag [17] or to better plan and perform more demanding analyses, e.g., optically stimulated luminescence dating [18].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the success of automated-SEM measurements is strongly dependent on the quality of the user-defined database of energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectra. For relatively simple materials such as ore-bearing rocks or mineral separates for dating, the databases comprise several phases [14,16,18]. Slags are more complex [10,17] and weathered zones developed on slag heaps may contain material from several slag types and several types of smelting and post-smelting activities that is later modified by pedogenesis [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding Heterogeneity of a Slag-Derived Weathered Material: The Role of Automated SEM-EDS Analyses

et al. 2018

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Slag heaps over years may evolve into complexly weathered zones, which are a challenging material for analyses as they contain phases from numerous sources and at different stages of weathering. However, the weathered zones are important parts of slag heaps, because they contain both primary and secondary phases enriched in metal(oid)s that may become soluble under specific conditions. The weathering reactions related to metal release or precipitation may be recorded in a heavy mineral fraction as the fraction contains predominately minerals with elevated toxic elements concentrations. Therefore, an automated SEM analysis on a polished section of included heavy mineral particles was applied in this paper for a rapid recognition of phases in a complex setting and their classification into detrital, primary and secondary phases. The approach was applied to a slag heap inŚwiętochłowice (Upper Silesia, Poland) and it consisted of analyzing magnetic and non-magnetic heavy mineral fractions from three distinct horizons noted A, B and C. Materials had been previously interpreted as being sourced from the heap itself (lowermost horizon C) and from artificially added materials used later for superficial site remediation (upper horizons A and B). Instead, automated SEM analysis demonstrated that horizon C is derived from the slag heap weathering, horizon B is derived predominately from the artificially added materials, whereas horizon A is a mixture of the B and C horizons. Additionally, when slag particles in horizons A and C are compared, the lowermost horizon C contains more slag-derived secondary phases, whereas horizon A contains more primary slag phases. Therefore, horizon A remains the most prone to releasing toxic elements because, considering its position as the uppermost horizon, it can be submitted to climatic solicitation (fast water circulation).

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“…Many of these assessments have become indispensable for relating the performance of a variety of mineral processes with mineralogy quantification (Kyle & Ketcham, 2015). Applications include liberation processes such as milling (Leißner et al, 2016), recovery processes such as flotation (Jordens et al, 2016, Tungpalan et al, 2015 and heap leaching (Naderi et al, 2011). Two of the main analytical devices used for imaging the internal structure of mineral ores are X-ray micro tomography (XMT) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) based mineral analysis (Sutherland & Gottlieb, 1991;Cnudde & Boone, 2013;Lin et al 2016b).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibrated X-ray micro-tomography for mineral ore quantification

Reyes

Lin

Udoudo

et al. 2017

Minerals Engineering

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Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) based assessments are the most widely used and trusted imaging technique for mineral ore quantification. X-ray micro tomography (XMT) is a more recent to the mineralogy toolbox, but with the potential to extend the measurement capabilities into the three dimensional (3D) assessment of properties such as mineral liberation, grain size and textural characteristics. In addition, unlike SEM based assessments which require the samples to be sectioned, XMT is non-invasive and non-destructive manner. The disadvantage of XMT, though is that the mineralogy must be inferred from the X-Ray attenuation measurements, which can make it hard to distinguish from one another, whereas SEM when coupled with Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX) provides elemental compositions and thus a more direct method for distinguishing different minerals. A new methodology that combines both methods at the mineral grain level is presented. The rock particles used to test the method were initially imaged in 3D using XMT followed by sectioning and the 2D imaging of the slices using SEM-EDX. An algorithm was developed that allowed the mineral grains in the 2D slice to be matched with their 3D equivalents in the XMT based images. As the mineralogy of the grains from the SEM images can be matched to a range of X-Ray attenuations, this allows minerals which have similar attenuations to one another to be distinguished, with the level of uncertainty in the classification quantified. In addition, the methodology allowed for the estimation of the level of uncertainty in the quantification of grain size by XMT, the assessment of stereological effects in SEM 2D images and ultimately to obtain a simplified 3D mineral map from low energy XMT images. Copper sulphide ore fragments, with chalcopyrite and pyrite as the main sulphide minerals, were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of this procedure.

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A mineral liberation study of grain boundary fracture based on measurements of the surface exposure after milling

Cited by 45 publications

References 20 publications

Quantitative Mineralogical Comparison between HPGR and Ball Mill Products of a Sn-Ta Ore

Quantitative Mineralogical Comparison between HPGR and Ball Mill Products of a Sn-Ta Ore

Understanding Heterogeneity of a Slag-Derived Weathered Material: The Role of Automated SEM-EDS Analyses

Calibrated X-ray micro-tomography for mineral ore quantification

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