Pratama Istiadi Guntoro (1), Yousef Ghorbani (1), Mehdi Parian (1), Alan R. Butcher (2), Jukka Kuva (2), Jan Rosenkranz (1)
Minerals Engineering, 164, February 2021. DOI: 10.1016/j.mineng.2021.106828

Keywords

Liberation modeling; X-ray microcomputed tomography; Ore texture

Abstract

Prediction of mineral liberation is one of the key steps in establishing a link between ore texture and its processing behavior. With the rapid development of X-ray Microcomputed Tomography (µCT), the extension of liberation modeling into 3D realms becomes possible. Liberation modeling allows for the generation of particle population from 3D texture data in a completely non-destructive manner. This study presents a novel texturebased 3D liberation model that is capable of predicting liberation from 3D drill core image acquired by µCT. The model takes preferential, phase-boundary, and random breakage into account with differing relative contributions to the liberation depending on the ore texture itself. The model was calibrated using experimental liberation data measured in 3D µCT. After calibration, the liberation model was found to be capable of explaining on average of around 84% of the variance in the experimental liberation data. The generated particle population can be used for particle-based process simulation to evaluate the process responses of various ore textures subjected to various modes of breakage.

How Our Software Was Used

Dragonfly was used for volume rendering and visualization of 3D images.

Author Affiliation

(1) Division of Minerals and Metallurgical Engineering, Luleå University of Technology, SE-971 87 Luleå, Sweden.
(2) Geological Survey of Finland GTK, PO Box 96, 02151 Espoo, Finland.