Phase Identification and Quantitative Analysis of Copper Ore by X-ray Diffraction

Introduction

Copper is used in electrical wires and copper alloy products, and is a fundamental material in many industrial fields. Copper ore, used as raw material, typically contains only about 1% copper. Therefore, the ore is usually beneficiated to produce a copper concentrate with a copper grade of approximately 20–40% before transportation. X-ray diffraction (XRD) can directly identify and quantify mineral phases. Therefore, it is utilized in exploration and mine development for the discovery of ore deposits through identification of copper-bearing minerals. In mining processing, understanding the types and proportions of copper minerals, as well as major associated minerals and gangue minerals, allows optimization of the mining process. This application note presents examples of phase identification and quantitative analysis of copper ore using XRD.

Measurement and analysis

Two copper ore materials from different regions, Copper ore A and Copper ore B, were chosen as the samples. Using the MiniFlex benchtop X-ray diffractometer, high-quality X-ray diffraction patterns were obtained within 10 minutes. Figure 1 shows the result of phase identification for Copper ore A, while Figure 2 shows the result for Copper ore B. These indicate that each material contains metallic mineral phases characteristic of its respective deposit type. Table 1 summarizes the results of quantitative analysis based on Rietveld refinement.

These results demonstrate that powder XRD enables rapid and non destructive identification and quantification of crystalline phases in copper ores, allowing effective comparison of mineralogical characteristics among different ore origins and mineralization zones.

Furthermore, the combination of XRD with elemental analysis by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) enables more accurate characterization of the chemical and mineralogical composition of copper ores.

Fig.1：Result of phase identification for Copper ore A

Fig.2：Result of phase identification for Copper ore B

Table1：Weight fractions of each crystalline phase in Copper ore A and Copper ore B

※Crystalline phases indicated with ‘–’ were not included in the analysis.

Recommended equipment and software

• MiniFlex benchtop X-ray diffractometer
• MiniFlex XpC compact X-ray diffractometer
• SmartLab SE or SmartLab automated multipurpose X-ray diffractometers
• SmartLab Studio II integrated X-ray analysis software (Powder XRD Plugin)