Determination of Mineral Liberation of a Bauxite Ore Based on 3D Compositional and Textural Characteristics Using X-ray Microtomography

ABSTRACT

Microscope-based automated image analysis systems have been used to obtain data regarding mineral liberation. However, this kind of analysis leads to stereological bias due to the intrinsic two-dimensionality characteristic of the technique. Three-dimensional imaging techniques such as X-ray microtomography comes as an alternative method to measure liberation. We explored the potentiality of high-resolution X-ray microtomography to investigate the characteristics of liberation of a Brazilian bauxite. Grade distributions in 2D and 3D were correspondent when all possible cross-sections were considered in 2D. However, 2D surface exposure did not converge accurately to the 3D method due to the loss of 3D information.

KEYWORDS:

• Mineral liberation
• X-ray microtomography
• stereological bias
• bauxite

Acknowledgments

We are very thankful to the Alcoa company for providing the bauxite sample and to Mineração Curimbaba for conducting the XRF analysis. The financial support from the Brazilian research agency Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) is gratefully acknowledged. Finally, the first author is grateful to Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) for the research scholarship (140876/2019-7).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) under Grant 140876/2019-7.