The mineralogy and texture of sinter play an important role in determining the physical and metallurgical properties of iron ore sinter. Identification and characterisation of sinter phases is, therefore, a cost-effective and complementary tool to conventional physical and metallurgical testing of iron ore sinter in evaluating and predicting sinter quality. Over the years, CSIRO has developed a scheme for characterising iron ore sinter which classifies primary and secondary sinter phases including various types of SFCA, secondary haematite and magnetite, glass, larnite and remnant fluxes. Correct identification of these sinter phases under optical microscopy is crucial for quantification of these phases by manual point counting under a petrographic microscope, automated optical image analysis, quantitative XRD and SEM techniques. Analysis of sinter phases by EPMA has helped to identify minor chemical differences in major sinter phases particularly various SFCA types. Sinters were prepared from sinter blends of varying chemistry and characterised using Optical microscope and EPMA. Distribution of sinter phases and abundance of mineralogical-textural sinter types can be used as an additional tool to explain metallurgical properties of sinter. CITATION:Hapugoda, S, Lu, L, Donskoi, E, Han, H, Manual, J and Yu, Y, 2019. Characterisation of iron ore sinter phases by optical microscopy and EPMA, in Proceedings Iron Ore 2019, pp 88100 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).