Characterisation of Minerals and Ores: On the Complementary Nature of Select Techniques and Beyond

This overview is written as a tribute to my teacher, Professor Arun Kumar Biswas who introduced me to the discipline of minerals characterisation over three decades back. The focus of the paper is on complementary nature of techniques used for mineralogical characterisation of ores, minerals and, intermediate and final products generated during processing. The subject matter is essentially covered in two parts. In the first part, a general outlook is given based on the research summary dealing with a wide spectrum of materials and processes investigated. The potential and limitations of some commonly used tools/techniques are highlighted. In the second part, specific examples are presented under different themes covering phase identification, quantification of phases, heterogeneity in ores, occurrence of minor elements and their reactivity, mechanically activated solids, and lastly, structure-leachability correlations.