Semi-automated iron ore characterization based on optical microscope analysis: quartz/resin classification

摘要

The present study was focused on the main problem arising from any quantitative mineralogy study involving iron ores characterization using a reflected light optical microscope (RLOM): to differentiate the quartz mineral from the resin phase in digital images taken from mounted polished sections. Both phases reflect in the same range of the grey scale. To evaluate the system response, a characterization study was performed in a typical Brazilian iron ore containing quartz and the main iron oxi-hidroxide minerals, magnetite, hematite and goethite. For the system validation these results were compared with the one generated with the same sample by MLA (Mineral Liberation Analizer). The results shows that the main advantage of this systems over the SEM based system is that it enables to differentiate, classify and quantify the quartz mineral and also the iron oxi-hidroxides minerals, magnetite, hematite and goethite allowing more precise qualitative response.