Abstract The evaluation of the mineral abundances and metal deportments in Ni-Co laterite ores by means of routine analytical techniques, such as X-Ray Powder Diffraction-based Quantitative Phase Analysis (XRPD-QPA), could be quite challenging or also ineffective, due to occurrence of ore minerals characterized either by complex crystal structures (e.g. smectite and certain Mn-oxy-hydroxides) or by poor structural order (Fe-oxy-hydroxides). In this context, automated Scanning Electron Microscopy (automated SEM)-based methods, which are based on the chemistry and density of various mineral species, could offer breakthroughs in defining the mineralogy and the metal deportments, bypassing the issues related to the presence of phases not evaluable by using solely XRPD-based approaches. For this study we conducted the mineralogical and chemical evaluation of oxide- and clay-dominated mineralised facies occurring in the Wingellina deposit through XRPD-QPA and automated SEM. The results show that the main benefit of using automated SEM is the possibility to directly detect and identify Ni-Co-bearing Mn-oxy-hydroxides (lithiophorite, lithiophorite-asbolane and asbolane) and Ni-bearing clays, which are hardly distinguished at the XRPD-QPA because of their poorly-crystalline structure. Moreover, the use of automated SEM for the analysis of Mn-oxy-hydroxide-dominated samples also allowed determining the Co deportment, which is essential to predict the optimum achievable metals recoveries. The main limitation encountered during the application of the automated SEM in this study was the fine-grained nature of the ore samples, leading to the detection of mixed mineral classes not corresponding to mineral phases sensu stricto.

中文翻译：

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通过基于 XRPD-QPA 和自动化 SEM 的方法对镍钴红土矿石进行定量矿物学评估：Wingellina（西澳大利亚）案例研究

摘要 通过常规分析技术，如基于 X 射线粉末衍射的定量相分析 (XRPD-QPA) 评估镍钴红土矿石中的矿物丰度和金属特征可能非常具有挑战性或无效，因为以复杂晶体结构（例如蒙脱石和某些 Mn-羟基氧化物）或结构有序（Fe-羟基氧化物）为特征的矿石矿物的出现。在这种情况下，基于各种矿物种类的化学和密度的基于自动扫描电子显微镜（自动 SEM）的方法可以在定义矿物学和金属特征方面提供突破，绕过与相存在相关的问题无法仅使用基于 XRPD 的方法进行评估。在本研究中，我们通过 XRPD-QPA 和自动扫描电镜对 Wingellina 矿床中以氧化物和粘土为主的矿化相进行了矿物学和化学评估。结果表明，使用自动化 SEM 的主要好处是可以直接检测和识别含 Ni-Co 的 Mn-羟基氧化物（锂硫磷矿、锂硫磷矿-asbolane 和 asbolane）和含 Ni 粘土，这些粘土在XRPD-QPA 因为它们的结晶结构差。此外，使用自动 SEM 分析以 Mn-羟基-氢氧化物为主的样品还可以确定 Co 行为，这对于预测可实现的最佳金属回收率至关重要。在本研究中应用自动 SEM 过程中遇到的主要限制是矿石样品的细粒性质，