Introduction
Automated Mineralogy is 'a range of analytical solutions that are used to quantitatively evaluate the mineralogy of samples'. Essentially, automated mineralogy is a software that can be used in conjunction with Scanning Electron Microscopes and associated detectors (
Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy and Backscattered Electron Imaging) that takes multiple different outputs provided by the microscope of a heterogeneous sample, which can then be used to categorise sections of the sample to produce a full characterisation of the sample in respect to:
- bulk mineralogy
- mineral association
- liberation data
- free surface area
- porosity
- element concentration
- grain size
The software is mostly used in geoscience, although, it can be used in disciplines such as: forensic sciences, archaeology and material sciences.