For samples in which the valuable mineral comprises less than 1% by volume, this method seeks out those particles containing the mineral(s) of concern and provides colour-keyed mineral maps and quantitative mineralogical information on just those particles.
This method accumulates many more occurrences of particles containing the valuable mineral than would be measured in a standard Liberation Analysis (XBSE). It is important to note that data, and reports, are restricted to just those particles containing the selected mineral. Mineral locking, association and grade-recovery information will be the same as if standard Liberation Analysis had been used to measure many more than the usual number of particles. However the modal and elemental analyses will only refer to the subset of the original sample containing the sparse phase.
Sample Requirements:
Requires 2-100 g of representatively split material in size fraction ranges of preferably no more than a factor of two between bottom size and top size, such as -150+75 µm. Size fractions extending to "0", such as -38 µm, are less preferred than those closed, such as -38+20 µm. Cyclosizer fractions are suitable. Cyclosizer tails and CS7 fractions are subject to a surcharge and often require desliming to allow successful preparation for the microscope.