Experimental analysis of mineral liberation and stereological bias based on X-ray computed tomography and artificial binary particles

Accurate evaluation of the mineral-liberation state is important for mineral processing. The liberation state is commonly measured by two-dimensional (2D) observations of the particle sections. However, this method inevitably suffers from stereological bias. Research on stereological bias and its correction method is an ongoing field of research. Stereological bias experiments require that the condition of the particles' internal structure can be systematically designed and the three-dimensional (3D) and 2D liberation states can be obtained. An experimental method combining artificial binary particle production and X-ray CT is proposed in this research, in response to the abovementioned requests. Liberation and stereological bias analyses were conducted on 16 samples with various internal structures using the proposed method. In addition, a recently proposed stereological correction method based on texture analysis of particle sections was attempted and its basic correction effect was validated. (C) 2017 The Society of Powder Technology Japan. Published by Elsevier B.V. and The Society of Powder Technology Japan. All rights reserved.