Fields of research covered by the LMA are those related to mineral resources, for fundamental and applied research. Direct applications are mining exploration, ore deposits modelling, ore genesis, ore mineralogy, process mineralogy and geometallurgy. Additionally, particular applications can be developed for their use in other fields, such as material science, metallurgy, geotechnics or environment.
- Microscopic characterisation of materials, rocks and ores by transmitted and reflected light, providing quantitative data about optical, morphological, granulometric and industrial parameters by means of digital image analysis. This application especially contributes to sustainability in the mining industry, since it is not only useful for improving the performance of mineral concentration processes, but also for detecting and controlling the presence of harmful substances, such as pyrite in coal or penalty elements in dumps.
- Works applied to mining exploration activities.
- Ore genesis, including petrography and microthermometry of fluid inclusions.Current issues approached by mining investigations and metallogeny, such as ore genesis, ore deposit modelling and mining exploration are usual tasks in the LMA, frequently performed in the frame of PhD thesis, master thesis or projects. For this purposes, several techniques are available, such as Fluid Inclusion petrography and microthermometry, ore microscopy, geochemistry, XRD, stereomicroscopy, digital image analysis, etc. When needed, external facilities are used for isotopic geochemistry, geochronology, electron microprobe, Raman spectroscopy, etc., thanks to the collaborative relationships with several associated research groups and laboratories.
- Applied mineralogy and petrology to different fields, specially Mineral Resources.
- Coal Petrography. In collaboration with CSIC (Coal Institute, Oviedo), coal petrography techniques are applied to give support to the Spanish government for the control of coal commercial circuits by characterizing the origin deposits.
- Solution for minerallurgical problems and geometallurgical characterization of minerals by digital image analysis. Geometallurgy has emerged in the last decades fuelled by the realization of the great influence that geological and mineralogical parameters have in the performance of mineral concentration processes. The application of the above referred techniques for the automated identification and quantitative characterization of ores provides relevant information, sometimes essential for the success of the process, but frequently ignored due to the lack of appropriate tools or the difficulty of its acquisition by manual methods.
