Monitoring of Lithium Contents in Lithium Ores and Concentrate-Assessment Using X-ray Diffraction (XRD)

A lithium ore grade measurement based on the neutron & X-ray bi-modal imaging system

The grades of the minerals significantly affects the energy consumption and chemical pollution along with the beneficiation process for extracting lithium element from the ores. Based on the large neutrons' macro cross section of the Li2O cluster inside the ores, the grades of lithium ores could be analyzed by the thermal neutron penetrating information. In this work, a bimodal imaging method, which utilizes both the information of penetrating neutrons and X-rays delivered by the same electron linear accelerator driven photoneutron system, was proposed to investigate the lithium concentration of each ore. A linearity R-square value of 0.991 between the results obtained with this method and those from the chemical method has been achieved. The average error in lithium concentration estimation is approximately 0.2 wt percent (wt%). The underlying principles and the experimental results will be elaborated on in this study.

Lithium Occurrence in Italy—An Overview

Italy has no record of Li production, even though it is well known for its outstanding Li mineral specimens from the Elba Island pegmatites. Because of the current geopolitical situation, the opportunity for a systematic appraisal of resources is evident. Most European Li production comes from deposits associated with Late Paleozoic magmatic rocks. In Italy, such rocks occur extensively in Sardinia and Calabria, but their potential for Li is unknown, and deserves a more systematic exploration. Also of potential interest are the Permo–Triassic spodumene pegmatites in the Austroalpine units of the Central Alps. The Tertiary pegmatites (Elba Island and Central Alps) contain Li minerals, but do not appear large enough to warrant bulk mining. However, we notice that Tertiary–Quaternary magmatic rocks of the Tuscan and Roman magmatic provinces have systematically higher Li contents than those recorded in normal arc igneous rocks worldwide. Specifically, Tuscan granites contain up to 350 μg/g Li, mostly hosted by biotite (up to 4000 μg/g Li); the Capo Bianco aplite (Elba Island) contains up to 1000 μg/g. There are other small Li occurrences associated with Mn deposits and metabauxites, and there is a hypothetical potential for sediment-hosted deposits in the post-orogenic Lower Permian Alpine basins. However, the most promising potential seems to be associated with subsurface fluids. High-enthalpy fluids in geothermal fields may contain up to 480 mg/L Li. Lower-temperature thermal waters may also contain significant Li (>10 mg/L). Moreover, a visionary, but not impossible, perspective may consider a deep injection of water to interact with, and extract Li from, magmatic rocks.

Value of Mineralogical Monitoring for the Mining and Minerals Industry

The shift towards lower grade ore deposits, sustainable energy, CO2 reduction, volatile market conditions and digitalization has pushed the mining and minerals industry towards predictive, sustainable and agile analytical solutions to improve safety and increase operational efficiency [...]

Indicator Minerals, Pathfinder Elements, and Portable Analytical Instruments in Mineral Exploration Studies

Until recently, the classic approach to mineral exploration studies was to bring the field samples/drill cores collected during field studies to the laboratory, followed by laborious analysis procedures to generate the analytical data. This is very expensive, time-consuming, and difficult for exploring vast areas. However, rapid technological advances in field-portable analytical instruments, such as portable visible and near-infrared spectrophotometers, gamma-ray spectrometer, pXRF, pXRD, pLIBS, and µRaman spectrometer, have changed this scenario completely and increased their on-site applications in mineral exploration studies. LED fluorimeter is a potential portable tool in the hydrogeochemical prospecting studies of uranium. These instruments are currently providing direct, rapid, on-site, real-time, non-destructive, cost-effective identification, and determination of target elements, indicator minerals and pathfinder elements in rock, ore, soil, sediment, and water samples. These portable analytical instruments are currently helping to obtain accurate chemical and mineralogical information directly in the field with minimal or no sample preparation and providing decision-making support during fieldwork, as well as during drilling operations in several successful mineral exploration programs. In this article, the developments in these portable devices, and their contributions in the platinum group elements (PGE), rare earth elements (REE), gold, base metals, and lithium exploration studies both on land and on the ocean bed, have been summarized with examples.