Journal
SPECTROCHIMICA ACTA PART B-ATOMIC SPECTROSCOPY
Volume 64, Issue 10, Pages 1048-1058Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.sab.2009.07.017
Keywords
Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy; Principal components analysis; Principal components regression; Optical emission; Ablation plasma
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In the mining industry the quality and extent of an ore body is determined on the basis of routine assays conducted on drill core and chip samples. Both the elemental composition and the mineralogical classification are important in the characterisation of an ore body for commercial exploitation. Mining industry laboratories typically analyse large numbers of samples from both exploration and mine production environments. At CSIRO we have explored the application of chemometric methods of analysis in combination with laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in order to produce routine quantitative analysis of several ore types including iron, nickel and lead/zinc ores. In particular, principal components regression (PCR) has been applied to perform multi-element analysis of iron ore samples from Australia and West Africa. Calibration models for iron (4.8% Av. Relative Error), aluminium (2.2%), silicon (3.7%) and potassium (1.4%) were determined for the Australian ores. In addition phosphorous measurements were made at trace level for samples from West Africa (5.5% Av. Relative Error). LIBS measurements of segments of a nickel drill core were also analysed using PCR. Mineralogical classification using a combination of LIBS and principal components analysis (PCA) has also been explored. Broad discrimination of ore mineralogy was demonstrated on the basis of the PCA of LIBS spectra in selected emission wavelength bands. The combination of PCA and PCR offers potential for both broad mineralogical and elemental analysis for the minerals industry in exploration and in mine production for the on-line monitoring of ore quality. Crown Copyright (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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