Petrolab are proud sponsors of Process Mineralogy 2018 in Cape Town this month and have the privilege of presenting both at a pre-conference workshop and within the main conference. The workshop is organised by Zeiss microscopy, focussed on “New developments in Automated Mineral Analysis” and has gathered together experts from Grinding Solutions, Zeiss Microscopy, Hippo Geoscience, Mintek, Geological Survey of Finland and the Centre for Minerals Research. The workshop is free to attend and promises to be an excellent overview of the state of the art, along with driving towards the next generation requirements of the technology, particularly as it relates to addressing the currently existing challenges in industry and academia.
Within the workshop itself James Strongman, Petrolab’s director, will be presenting on “Maximising the value of mineralogy, a staple rather than luxury in the Metallurgists’ diet”. The full Workshop Agenda can be found here, and is also reproduced below.
The conference presentation later in the week is the first output to come from the ATSE grant-funded work, in conjunction with the University of Tasmania into developing the use of automated mineralogy with kinetic tests. For this presentation the particular focus on the rapid acquisition of encapsulation information through the use of image processing recipes in Mineralogic v1.5. Whilst this toolkit has proven useful across the wide size range of a kinetic test it is also envisaged to have wider application across process mineralogy applications, particularly when the target minerals in question is denser than the hosting gangue minerals. See below for the outputs of the image processing recipe and the full abstract.
Automated environmental mineralogy; using image processing tools to maximise the efficient analysis of liberation across multiple size fractions.
Brough, C1*., Parbhakar-Fox, A2., Garner, C1., Fletcher, J1., Barnes, A3., Griffiths, R4., Strongman, J1., Bowell, R3.
- Petrolab Limited, C Edwards Offices, Gweal Pawl, Redruth, Cornwall, TR15 3AE
- TMVC Research Hub, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia
- Geochemic Ltd, Abergavenny, Wales
- SRK Consulting, 5th Floor, Churchill House, 17 Churchill Way, Cardiff, CF10 2HH
*Corresponding Author:chris@petrolab.co.uk
Abstract
Humidity cell tests (HCTs) are a routine analytical tool for assessing the long-term variation in sulfide oxidation kinetics within potential mine waste. One of the challenges with mineral texture analysis of HCTs is the large size range of the sample, and therefore the need for multiple size fractions along with the time and cost implications of this.
This paper presents image processing tools using in conjunction with multiple size fractions that have been utilised in the analysis of HCT feed samples from two localities. These tools allow for the comparatively rapid assessment of sulfide liberation, by combining a bright phase search with the analysis of a dilation zone around the target of interest to ascertain either partial perimeter or area grade liberation. These tools have the potential for widespread application across process mineralogy assessments, presenting the potential for cost and time savings in the analysis of mineral liberation.
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