Mineral liberation is the process of lowering particle size from large to small. Because mined ore often contains both valuable minerals and gangue, effective recovery of the valuable minerals necessitates crushing the raw ore to a specific size, allowing for their separation from the gangue. The extent of this separation is known as mineral liberation.

Liberation varies for different minerals and even within the same type,there is no common standard. Typically, specific liberation data is acquired following crushing and observation.

• Low concentrate grade and recovery rates are the consequence of insufficient release caused by coarse crushing.
• Although complete liberation is achieved through fine crushing, this procedure results in excessive fines that reduce recovery efficiency and raise processing costs.
• After crushing, more than 90% of the minerals and gangue should be distinguishable with little to no fines, which is the optimal liberation state.

Notably, production volume during mass production and the technology for additional processing are taken into account for high-value minerals in addition to liberation. For example, total release to a recognizable condition (about 0.6–0.8 cm) greatly decreases sorting output in pegmatite quartz deposits. On the other hand, 8–14 tons of material can be produced per hour by lowering the optical sorting size to 1-3 cm and processing some quartz and feldspar that is still intergrown using flotation technology. This method strikes a balance between productivity and liberation.