1468 XXXI International Mineral Processing Congress 2024 Proceedings/Washington, DC/Sep 29–Oct 3
with cracks (Kodali et al., 2011), using XCT scans with
higher spatial resolution, valuable information regarding
particle damage, such as number of micro-cracks, size, and
surface area of cracks, can be determined. The energy for
particle breakage in HPGR was correlated to the quantita-
tive analysis of particle internal fractures, such as specific
crack surface areas in mm2/mm3 (Lin et al., 2012 Miller
&Lin, 2018).
Deportment of precious metal ores by 2D imag-
ing technologies, such as Scanning Electron Microscope
(SEM), is limited to the number of ore particles mounted
at the polished section surface. The majority of precious
metal resources have a metal grade of around 10 ppm, and
the metal association depends on the ore type. Using a 3D
imaging technique like XCT, the number of ore particles
analyzed can be increased significantly (Wang et al., 2017).
However, the previous generations of micro-XCT, such as
the Xradia-400 system at the University of Utah, are lim-
ited to a practical voxel size of about 2 μm (Miller &Lin,
2018), which is not enough to resolution the micrometer-
size metal grains. With the advance of the latest XCT tech-
nology and computer capability, such-micron resolution
and analysis of large images can easily be achieved.
METHODS
4-inch Leach Column
A Zeiss Xradia 620 system, at the University of Utah nano-
fab, was used to scan the 4-inch leach columns at the voxel
resolution of 68 μm, which was a significantly higher spa-
tial resolution than the milli-scans done in previous study
(Lin et al., 2005). Figure 1 (top) shows the photograph of a
4-inch column inside the XCT instrument, with the X-ray
source on the left and the 3K × 2K flat panel detector on
the sample’s right. A 2D projection image and a section
Figure 1. Top: Photograph of 4-inch column inside the Zeiss Xradia Versa 620 XCT system at the
University of Utah nanofab Bottom-Left: a projected image of the 4-inch column Bottom-Right: a
section of the reconstructed 3D image of the 4-inch column
with cracks (Kodali et al., 2011), using XCT scans with
higher spatial resolution, valuable information regarding
particle damage, such as number of micro-cracks, size, and
surface area of cracks, can be determined. The energy for
particle breakage in HPGR was correlated to the quantita-
tive analysis of particle internal fractures, such as specific
crack surface areas in mm2/mm3 (Lin et al., 2012 Miller
&Lin, 2018).
Deportment of precious metal ores by 2D imag-
ing technologies, such as Scanning Electron Microscope
(SEM), is limited to the number of ore particles mounted
at the polished section surface. The majority of precious
metal resources have a metal grade of around 10 ppm, and
the metal association depends on the ore type. Using a 3D
imaging technique like XCT, the number of ore particles
analyzed can be increased significantly (Wang et al., 2017).
However, the previous generations of micro-XCT, such as
the Xradia-400 system at the University of Utah, are lim-
ited to a practical voxel size of about 2 μm (Miller &Lin,
2018), which is not enough to resolution the micrometer-
size metal grains. With the advance of the latest XCT tech-
nology and computer capability, such-micron resolution
and analysis of large images can easily be achieved.
METHODS
4-inch Leach Column
A Zeiss Xradia 620 system, at the University of Utah nano-
fab, was used to scan the 4-inch leach columns at the voxel
resolution of 68 μm, which was a significantly higher spa-
tial resolution than the milli-scans done in previous study
(Lin et al., 2005). Figure 1 (top) shows the photograph of a
4-inch column inside the XCT instrument, with the X-ray
source on the left and the 3K × 2K flat panel detector on
the sample’s right. A 2D projection image and a section
Figure 1. Top: Photograph of 4-inch column inside the Zeiss Xradia Versa 620 XCT system at the
University of Utah nanofab Bottom-Left: a projected image of the 4-inch column Bottom-Right: a
section of the reconstructed 3D image of the 4-inch column