Grade Control with Mineralogy
Grade control or mill-feed optimization aims to deliver ores of consistent grade, hardness and gangue mineralogy to the mineral processing line. Workflows commonly rely on bulk chemistry of samples taken at the mine bench or other locations before after blasting. However, advances in automated sample preparation and rapid data collection have opened a new frontier in ore grading: mineralogy and textural analysis. The incorporation of rapid mineralogical characterization into grade control workflows allows
- Identification of ore with higher degrees of beneficiation
- Identification of gangue mineral species and grain sizes that limit efficient recovery of target metals through changes to floatation cell behavior or solvent chemistries
- Identification and exclusion of penalty phases, (e.g., clays in iron ore, arsenic minerals in copper ores)
- Limiting the number of samples submitted for full digestion analysis by ICP-MS or other wet chemical techniques