Understanding the movement of radionuclides (RNs) between different mineral hosts during processing of base metal ores is critical for accurate modelling of RN deportment and optimisation of processes designed to reduce or eliminate RNs. Here, we demonstrate that spatially resolving quantitative alpha particle autoradiography combined with backscatter electron imaging and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) can establish the correlation between alpha-emitting RNs (notably ²²⁶Ra and ²¹⁰Po, daughters of the abundant ²³⁸U decay series) and certain minerals, in different stages of processing. This is achieved by locating the RNs to a specific mineral grain, the species of which can subsequently be identified using EDS. The mineralogy of RN-associated grains can then be compared with the mineral suite and relative abundances of the species within the sample, by relating how often each mineral is associated with alpha decay-events. In the processing of uranium-bearing copper ores, migration of alpha-emitting RN daughters of the ²³⁸U series were observed, and these RNs were demonstrated to correlate strongly with barite, bornite and covellite over other coexisting minerals.

了解贱金属矿石加工过程中不同矿物主体之间放射性核素（RNs）的运动对于RN行为的准确建模和旨​​在减少或消除RNs的工艺优化至关重要。在这里，我们证明了空间分辨定量α粒子放射自显影与背向散射电子成像和能量色散X射线光谱法（EDS）相结合可以建立发射α的RNs（特别是²²⁶ Ra和²¹⁰ Po，丰富的²³⁸个子代）之间的相关性。U衰变序列）和某些矿物，处于不同的加工阶段。这是通过将RN定位到特定的矿粒来实现的，随后可以使用EDS识别其种类。然后，可以通过关联每种矿物与α衰变事件相关的频率，来将RN相关谷物的矿物学与样品中的矿物组和物种的相对丰度进行比较。在含铀铜矿石的加工过程中，观察到²³⁸ U系列的发射α的RN子代的迁移，并且证明这些RN与重晶石，斑铁矿和陨石强烈相关，高于其他共存矿物。