ORE LIBERATION MODELING BY MINERALS TOPOLOGICAL EVALUATION

Liberation of valuable minerals from multiphase ores is one of the mai n goat of a size reduction process. Great importance is thus assumed b y models able to give a detailed provisional description of the ore li beration\comminution process. In the definition of these models, the h ypotheses usually adopted for ore textural and structural characterisa tion are dramatically simplified due to the great difficulty of transl ating and incorporating such characteristics in numerical form. This p aper describes the possibilities offered by a full colour multispectra l image analysis system for evaluating the liberation characteristics of an ore. The procedures and the related algorithms have been develop ed in order to permit a full recognition and morphological modelling o f the different mineralogical species inside the images acquired by op tical microscopy. A topological map containing a reduced body of data is related with the liberation characteristics of minerals. The system incorporates all the procedures able both to process the previously d erived information and to test different comminution strategies based on the topological assessment of the species and the selected theoreti cal comminution net.