A Method for Quality Control of Bauxites: Case Study of Brazilian Bauxites Using PLSR on Transmission XRD Data

Available Alumina (AvAl2O3) and Reactive Silica (RxSiO2), the main parameters of bauxite controlled in the beneficiation process are traditionally measured by laborious, expensive, and time-consuming wet chemistry methods. Alternative methods based on XRD analysis, capable to provide a reliable esti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Minerals (Basel) 2021-10, Vol.11 (10), p.1054
Main Authors: Melo, Caio C. A., Angélica, Rômulo S., Paz, Simone P. A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum industry
Aluminum oxide
available alumina
Bauxite
Bayer process
Beneficiation
Chemistry
Clustering
Data collection
Fourier transforms
Lithology
Mathematical models
Methods
Mineralogy
Parameters
PLSR
Principal components analysis
Process controls
Quality control
reactive silica
Silica
Silicon dioxide
Statistical analysis
Statistical methods
X-ray diffraction
XRD
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Summary:Available Alumina (AvAl2O3) and Reactive Silica (RxSiO2), the main parameters of bauxite controlled in the beneficiation process are traditionally measured by laborious, expensive, and time-consuming wet chemistry methods. Alternative methods based on XRD analysis, capable to provide a reliable estimation of these parameters and valuable mineralogical information of the ore, are being studied. In this work, X-ray diffraction data in transmission mode was used to estimate AvAl2O3 and RxSiO2 from Brazilian bauxites using the Partial Least Square Regression (PLSR) statistical tool. The proposed method comprises a routine of sample classification according to their similarities by Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and K-means, calibration of the PLSR model for each group of samples, grouping new bauxite samples according to the generated clustering model, and subsequent estimation of the parameters AvAl2O3 and RxSiO2 using the PLSR models for these samples. The results showed good accuracy and precision of the models generated for samples of the main ore lithology. The quality and pre-processing of the XRD data required for this method are discussed. The results demonstrated that this method has the potential to be industrially applied to quality control of bauxites as a rapid and automated procedure.
ISSN:2075-163X
2075-163X
DOI:10.3390/min11101054