Mar 27 2007
FEI Company and Australian-based JKTech have teamed to combine their innovative scanning electron microscope (SEM) technologies and software, delivering innovative applications that greatly enhance minerals processing and improve evaluation of exploration targets for mining operations. The combined solution features FEI’s Quanta™ SEM and JKTech’s Mineral Liberation Analyzer software and is available now with liquid-nitrogen-free, high throughput silicon drift EDS technology.
The Mineral Liberation Analyzer (MLA), capable of analyzing up to 16 different samples overnight without the need of an operator, is a high-throughput and highly-automated mineral analysis system. It rapidly identifies minerals in polished sections of drill core, particulate or lump materials and quantifies a wide range of mineral characteristics such as abundance, grain size and liberation distributions. The automated stage control and image acquisition of the Quanta SEM enable imaging and subsequent x-ray analysis of at least 5,000 individual particles for concentrated samples and 50,000 or more particles for tailings or low-grade materials. The geometallurgical and ore characterization data enables users to optimize plant feed quality by avoiding metallurgically poor ore stocks or facilitating effective ore blending.
“There are hundreds of mining operations around the world and all of them are continually looking for means of increasing yields and lowering cost,” comments Dr. Geoff Gault, JKTech’s managing director. “Because the Mineral Liberation Analyzer not only delivers critical data for making mineral processing more efficient, but also provides a highly effective tool for evaluating exploration targets, this solution represents a compelling value proposition for customers.”
There are already more than a dozen leading international resource companies on four continents utilizing the MLA package to improve processing efficiencies for copper, nickel, lead, zinc, manganese, iron ore, mineral sands and precious metals such as platinum, palladium, silver and gold. Several are utilizing multiple tools for 24/7 analysis. Universities and geological institutions are also finding the MLA a valuable tool that contributes significantly to their research outcomes.
“The MLA package represents a complete mineral analysis solution that can be tailored to suit high-throughput production applications and research applications,” said Bruno Janssens, vice president of FEI’s NanoResearch and Industry division. “Our customers are seeing a rapid return on the investment from the MLA system founded upon the complementary combined expertise and support of FEI and JKTech.”