Abstract:More than 40 kinds of selected minerals and compounds were individually irradiated bymicrowaves under an inert atmosphere，and the temperatures of samples were measured with a metal-sheathed thermocouple inserted into the samples directly. The results indicated that most sulphide and  some oxide minerals and compounds could be heated to high temperatures in a short time，whereas the   common gangue minerals，some oxide and oxy-salt minerals or compounds could not. The sulphide min-erals had faster heating rate than the oxide minerals containing the same canons. The impurities of min-erals had significant effect on the heating rate.  The selective heating characteristics of microwaves on  different minerals and compounds could be attributed to the differences between their conductivities or  dielectric loss factors and bonding properties.

Key words: microwave heating  minerals and compounds  mineral processing  extractive metallurgy