In the mining industry, mineralogical characterization using automated mineralogical devices (scanning electron microscope and reflected optical microscope) has become inescapable, especially for geometallurgical purposes. Mineralogical characterization using these techniques requires correct sampling of the material to obtain representative polished sections. This technical note proposes a method to decide the appropriate number of polished sections which need to be prepared according to the size class considered to achieve enough representability. To illustrate this method, two sampling protocols (at grain form for textural purposes and powder form) of a theoretical typical sulfide ore including a sizing preparation, are presented with the computation method of the variance of the fundamental error related to sampling. The sampling protocols are an adaptation of safety lines derived from the sampling theory of Pierre Gy and need to be adjusted according to the intrinsic properties’ knowledge of the material considered. The method can be very useful to better anticipate the lack of representativity of mineralogical data provided by automated mineralogical devices linked to the sampling preparation.

在采矿业中，使用自动化矿物学设备（扫描电子显微镜和反射光学显微镜）进行矿物学表征已成为不可避免的问题，尤其是在地质冶金方面。使用这些技术进行矿物学表征需要对材料进行正确取样以获得具有代表性的抛光切片。本技术说明提出了一种方法来确定需要根据尺寸等级准备的适当数量的抛光部分，以实现足够的代表性。为了说明该方法，提出了一种理论典型硫化矿的两种取样方案（用于纹理目的的颗粒形式和粉末形式），包括上浆准备，以及与取样相关的基本误差方差的计算方法。采样协议是对源自 Pierre Gy 采样理论的安全线的改编，需要根据所考虑材料的内在特性知识进行调整。该方法对于更好地预测与采样准备相关的自动化矿物学设备提供的矿物学数据缺乏代表性非常有用。