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Introduction
Improvements in Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) hardware (detector and pulse processing
electronics) and software over the last decade have delivered many advances in terms of data quality,
acquisition speed and ease of use. Here, we look at the specific advantages that these developments
have brought to the field of process mineralogy.
INCAMineral
Oxford Instruments’ automated mineralogy software,
INCAMineral, operates on a standard scanning electron
microscope (SEM) equipped with Oxford Instruments’
hardware. As such, other analysis tasks may be performed
on the sample without removing it from the chamber. The
software is integrated with the AZtec® and INCA® analysis
suite allowing it to be retrofitted to existing systems.
Fig. 1. X-MaxN 150 mm2 Silicon Drift Detector.
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MINERALOGY
The Application of Recent Developments in EDS
Hardware and Software to Process Mineralogy
Application Note
The accelerating voltage may be chosen by the user. As a full quantification including the corrections described above and auto-
identification (if selected) of all elements is performed for each particle, the microscope conditions can be varied to optimise the
run.
1mm
Fig. 4. Montaged large area autophasemap of a geological sample Fig. 5. Quant Data collected from orthoclase at 10 kcps and 250 kcps
obtained with multiple SDDs. Sample courtesy of Juliane Hennig, Data collected at both high and low count rates gives the same
Royal Holloway, University of London. correct quant results. Pile-up is automatically corrected, so there is no
degradation in data quality at high count rates.
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GSR
MINERALOGY
The Application of Recent Developments in EDS
Hardware and Software to Process Mineralogy
Once acquisition is complete, data is processed with GrainAlyser to determine the minerals processing parameters of the
sample. Size fractions may be combined and weighted and industry standard plots may be quickly generated depending on
the type of analysis undertaken (see Fig. 6 to Fig. 9). A number of parameters are calculated for all datasets, these are: The
bulk elemental makeup of the sample, the mean composition of all phases, the deportment of each detected element, and full
morphological data for all grains and particles (each field of view for a modal sample is considered as an individual particle).
A series of plots are also immediately available including phase abundance, size distribution and association. For particulated
samples run in liberation mode, liberation plots may be output. MS Excel reports may also be output for each analysis type with
all of the calculations already made or alternatively as raw data thereby allowing the user to process the data in their own way.
Fig. 8.
Liberation plot for various forms of sphalerite.
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Fig. 9. Phase abundance within ore.
Conclusions
We have shown that the combination of up to four X-MaxN SDDs with the AZtec and INCA
nanoanalysis suite enables powerful analysis of geological materials and high throughput. Comprehensive
quantitative processing algorithms ensure the accuracy of quant data and are utilised throughout the
software. INCAMineral takes advantage of X-MaxN to automatically determine key mineralogical
measures such as liberation, association, grade recovery and phase abundance quickly and easily.
Classifications are performed on the fully quantified data and as such can be easily tailored to any sample.
www.oxford-instruments.com/mineral
The materials presented here are summary in nature, subject to change, and intended for general
information only. Performances are configuration dependent. Additional details are available. Oxford
Instruments NanoAnalysis is certified to ISO9001, ISO14001 and OHSAS 18001. AZtec and X-Max are
Registered Trademarks of Oxford Instruments plc, all other trademarks acknowledged. © Oxford Instruments
plc, 2015. All rights reserved. OINA/EDS/AN/INCAMineral/1115.