Mineral characterization as a tool in the implementation of geometallurgy into industrial mineral mining

Industrial minerals play an important role in the Norwegian mining industry. The presented research focuses on defining marble deposit variability in order to evaluate parameters that can potentially be related to downstream process performance. Two types of marble raw material (K2 and K5) from the Verdalskalk open pit, used for precipitated calcium carbonate production (PCC) were tested for possible differences within texture, grain boundaries shape, grain size, accessory mineral assemblage. Additionally, surface hardness was measured using the Proceq Equotip 3 D device. K5 type was found to be finer-grained compared to K2. The presence of quartz was more pronounced in K2 type material, which possessed higher surface hardness values and presented higher variation of those.