MineralMate: a standalone MATLAB-based aide for the magnetic separation of minerals

Abstract

MineralMate is a standalone MATLAB-based program designed to optimize the workflow associated with the magnetic separation of minerals. For nearly every bulk geochemical analysis some amount of mineral separation must occur, and the use of an electromagnetic separator is ubiquitous and considered as standard practice in many fields. Despite the commonality in which magnetic separation is used, there are considerable shortcomings. Electromagnet overheating and composite mineral grains are frequently encountered, as well as poorly constrained mineral behavior. These complications ultimately reduce the quality of downstream geochemical data. MineralMate is designed to alleviate these shortcomings by quickly and efficiently producing a magnetic separation workflow allowing the user to: (1) identify and compare optimal recovery ranges for different minerals from a bulk mineral assemblage, (2) identify the parameters on a conventional magnetic separator required to magnetically separate composite grains, (3) create/update user-specific magnetic susceptibility databases through empirical data collection, and (4) utilize an alternative magnetic separation equation.