Why mineralogical analysis is at the heart of effective critical minerals mining

Critical mineral ore grades are declining rapidly around the world. For example, in Indonesia, experts warn that high-grade nickel reserves may be depleted in as little as six years.

For producers, this presents a big problem. Lower ore grades mean higher energy consumption, more intensive processing requirements, and rising operational costs. Elemental analysis of your ores is no longer enough to effectively control your processes and final product.

The latest episode of our Critical Minerals Expert webinar series shows the way forward.

Malvern Panalytical specialists Uwe König and Matteo Pernechele explain how implementing mineralogical analysis into your workflow with X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectroscopy can help adapt your processes to your ores, optimizing recovery and maintaining profitability.

Here are the top insights from the session.

Key takeaways

1. The mineralogy of your ores determines the processing steps required to extract critical minerals; getting it wrong could waste reagents or diminish your yield.
2. XRD offers a fast and reliable method to test the mineralogy of your ores, supporting data-driven process improvement.
3. Our Aeris XRD instrument with its new High-Capacity Sample Changer brings automated, round-the-clock analysis of critical mineral ores directly to your high-throughput mine laboratory, enabling more economically viable extraction.

Re-watch the second episode!

Mineralogical control is non-negotiable for processing critical minerals

As Matteo and Uwe discussed in the first episode of the Critical Minerals Expert series, when dealing with high-grade ores, elemental control might be enough to determine your processing steps and ensure economically viable extraction.

However, producers are increasingly dealing with not only low-grade critical mineral ores, but highly complex ones, with many mineralogical profiles showing up in a single deposit. In these cases, merely ascertaining which elements are present will not help you with effective extraction. In fact, it could cause downstream processing issues.

For example, the mineral monazite contains rare earth elements (REEs) such as cerium, lanthanum, and neodymium. Bastnäsite also contains these elements, but where monazite requires large quantities of acid to leach the REEs from the ore, bastnäsite doesn’t.

This means that if you mistake one for the other, you could either waste money on unnecessary acids, or on reprocessing your ores, negatively impacting your profitability. Mineralogical insights can save you from making these costly mistakes.

“Every mine uses mineralogical data in a different way. For example, a lot of use machine learning clustering algorithms to sort the deposit into groups based on mineralogy, and put them in [separate] storage facilities to be processed differently.” – Matteo Pernechele

Combine XRD with AI data analysis to increase plant efficiency

The key advantages of using XRD for mineralogical analysis are the speed, reliability, and volume of the data insights it gives you into your ores, creating many opportunities for data-driven process optimization.

For instance, Matteo notes that most producers use XRD to analyze the overall composition of their ores, inputting the resulting data into a machine learning algorithm that sorts the deposit into groups for separate processing. This helps minimize waste and maximize resource utilization.

Given that crushing and grinding ores accounts for at least 40% of a mine’s total energy consumption, this is just one way that mineralogical analysis with XRD is helping mines achieve process optimization and more sustainable resource management.

Using Aeris XRD to analyze copper ores

Following this discussion, Matteo put the Aeris to the test in a real-world scenario: running an analysis on more than 20 samples from a copper mine’s flotation plant. The goal was to measure and monitor copper recovery across different flotation cells, with results ready to implement process changes by the next morning.

The easy-to-use interface means that operators do not need in-depth technical training to run the tests or interpret the data, instead viewing the output in a format tailored to the site’s specific requirements by the Malvern Panalytical team.

The test found two different copper-bearing streams in the flotation feed, both high in chalcopyrite. This opened up several process optimization options for the plant’s managers:

1. Separate storage: Keep the streams in two different siloes, only processing the lower-grade material when copper prices are high and can justify the expense.
2. Adjust reagents: Adapt reagent dosages to the chalcopyrite content of the ores, which would potentially improve recovery rates but raise operating costs.
3. Blend the feeds: Mix the two ore streams for a more homogeneous feed grade and better recovery rates over time.

Incorporate XRD into your workflow quickly and easily

X-ray diffraction technology used to be a scientific tool reserved for highly specialized labs. Now, thanks to instruments like the Aeris and its High-Capacity Sample Changer, it is an effective process tool that delivers actionable mineralogical insights in less than five minutes.

With just an ordinary power outlet and a few minutes of training, your critical minerals lab can start delivering essential mineralogical insights to inform necessary process adjustments and maximize recovery and profitability.

Don’t miss out on the next episode of our Critical Minerals Expert series on October 14th! Sign up for the session that suits your time zone:

Do you have any questions about the topics discussed during this webinar? Please contact one of our friendly experts below!

Further reads:

• Why mineralogical analysis is at the heart of effective critical minerals mining
• How strong quality control can supercharge your critical mineral mining operations
• What is manganese, and how is it used in sustainable infrastructure and energy storage?
• What are rare-earth elements? A guide to REE mining and analysis
• 6 Precious metal analysis methods using advanced analytical technologies