In a paper published by Wei Zhang, David Lentz, and Brittany Charnley in March 2017, they illustrate the value of using an Olympus portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer (pXRF) to discriminate complex rock types and understand alteration and mineralization in the Mount Pleasant deposit, New Brunswick, Canada.
Mount Pleasant was previously explored for tungsten, but today it’s being mined for tin, zinc, and indium. Indium is a rare metal but is essential for use in flat-screen TVs, smartphones, and computer monitors.
This study highlights the practical application of lithogeochemistry using the immobile element suite of titanium (Ti), zirconium (Zr), niobium (Nb), and yttrium (Y) and principal component analysis to identify rock types, as well as the two key styles of mineralization and alteration in the study area. Samples were collected in the field along with associated GPS coordinates. They were brought back to the lab where the X-5000 analyzer was used to provide material chemistry.
The result of the study is that the geoscientists were able to better understand the geology of the Mount Pleasant deposit. XRF played an important role since the different rock units were complicated and difficult to discriminate visually.
Learn more about our newest instrument for elemental analysis for the mining industry: the Vanta™ portable XRF analyzer.
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