Working with hierarchical databases in R to model geometallurgical data

For the demands of geometallurgy a vast amount of data in multifaceted shape is needed. There are high resolution images from the MLA, data tables with information on the chemistry of some mineral phases, statistics on the distribution of the grain size, and so on. This data needs to be stored in a database, which reflects the often hierarchical structure of it and is flexible enough to be extended with almost any potential occurring information. We provide a MySQL template for such a database. Finding the desired data there can be a tough task, since queries might be highly complex and confusing. Therefore, we developed an easy accessible R interface for accessing this database.