Chemometric and multivariate statistical analysis of time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry spectra from complex Cu-Fe sulfides.

Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS) spectra of mineral samples are complex, comprised of large mass ranges and many peaks. Consequently, characterization and classification analysis of these systems is challenging. In this study, different chemometric and statistical data evaluation methods, based on monolayer sensitive TOF-SIMS data, have been tested for the characterization and classification of copper-iron sulfide minerals (chalcopyrite, chalcocite, bornite, and pyrite) at different flotation pulp conditions (feed, conditioned feed, and Eh modified). The complex mass spectral data sets were analyzed using the following chemometric and statistical techniques: principal component analysis (PCA); principal component-discriminant functional analysis (PC-DFA); soft independent modeling of class analogy (SIMCA); and k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) classification. PCA was found to be an important first step in multivariate analysis, providing insight into both the relative grouping of samples and the elemental/molecular basis for those groupings. For samples exposed to oxidative conditions (at Eh ~430 mV), each technique (PCA, PC-DFA, SIMCA, and k-NN) was found to produce excellent classification. For samples at reductive conditions (at Eh ~ -200 mV SHE), k-NN and SIMCA produced the most accurate classification. Phase identification of particles that contain the same elements but a different crystal structure in a mixed multimetal mineral system has been achieved.