Process and grade control of mined materials has become a challenging task in mining operations today. Low-grade ores with frequent changes of the mineralogy will be the future source for the metal industry, but making the set-up and maintenance of analytical strategies in the mining lab will become more difficult. Further, new environmental regulations are enforcing the control of hazardous elements in the final products. Therefore, the early knowledge about contaminations from ores will help producers to avoid high levels, eg of Cd or Pb, in their final metal alloys. These new requirements are enforcing a higher degree of analytical flexibility in mining laboratories and therefore also for analytical equipment, which cannot be fulfilled with traditional setups.X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis is known for the very short time-to-result, the high level of accuracy and precision and the simple sample preparation paired with the high degree of automation. All this is making XRF the optimal suited analytical method for process and grade control in mining operations. Quick sample preparation on pressed pellets helps to deliver instant results. Fused bead preparation requires a higher investment in equipment and needs longer set-up time, but delivers higher accuracy and covers broader material ranges.Simultaneous wavelength-dispersive XRF (WDXRF) instruments are delivering accuracy paired with precision in the shortest possible measurement time. Traditionally these instruments were configured with fixed single element channels in Rowland circle geometry for a selection of elements of special interest. This makes them an indispensable tool for process control in metals and mining. The high analytical speed helps to achieve a maximum of sample throughput in mining service labs worldwide. A new instrument design combines the analytical performance of the conventional configuration with fixed wavelength-dispersive element channels and a modern simultaneous energy-dispersive detector in order to achieve high analytical precision and accuracy. At the same time, while the elements of interests are counted with fixed channels, the energy-dispersive detector records the complete spectrum of the sample. This snap shot' of the elemental composition enables the monitoring of all elements present in the sample, but doesn't add additional measurement time.Application examples for grade control of ores and industrial minerals are shown to demonstrate and to give directions for the best suitable analytical strategy.CITATION:Behrens, K, Porta, D and Grigolato, E, 2013. Grade control of ores - how different x-ray fluorescence technologies deliver accuracy and precision in daily routine, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2013 , pp 223-226 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).