Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Knowledge of the grades of valuable elements and their variation is rarely sufficient for geometallurgy. Minerals define not only the value of the deposit, but also the method of extraction and concentration. A number of methods for obtaining mineral grades were evaluated with a focus on geometallurgical applicability, precision and trueness. For geometallurgical program, the number of samples to be analyzed is huge, therefore a method for obtaining mineral grades needs to be cost-efficient, relatively fast, and reliable. Scanning electron microscopy based automated mineralogy is generally regarded as the most reliable method for analyzing mineral grades. However, the method is time demanding and expensive. Quantitative X-ray diffraction has a relatively high detection limit, 0.5%, while the method is not suitable for some base and precious metal ores, but still provides significant details on gangue mineral grades. The usage of the element to mineral conversion has been limited to simple mineralogy because the number of minerals is limited by the number of elements analyzed. This study investigates a new method for the estimation of mineral grades applicable for geometallurgy by combining both quantitative X-ray diffraction with Rietveld refinement and the element to mineral conversion method. The proposed method not only delivers the required turnover for geometallurgy, but also overcomes the shortcomings if XRD or EMC is used alone.