Detailed information about the course

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Title

Automated Mineralogy in Geosciences

Dates

January 22nd-23rd 2018

Responsable de l'activité

Kalin Kouzmanov

Organizer(s)

Dr. Kalin Kouzmanov

Speakers

Dr Andrew Menzies, Universidad Catolica del Norte, Antofagasta, Chile

Description

Automated mineralogy has been successfully used in the mining industry since the 1970s. Since that time automated mineralogy has evolved with technological developments and computing power, such that today there exists a range of analytical possibilities, including (i) electron beam (e-beam) systems (e.g. scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometers (EDS) such as QEMSCAN), (ii) micro-XRF (X-beam) systems, and (iii) hyperspectral systems. Of these, the most common are e-beam systems, of which QEMSCAN is the dominant system in the market. Importantly, the application of automated mineralogy has evolved beyond the mining sector and is now routing employed in geological sciences and other fields (e.g. archaeology, forensics, environmental sciences, geometallurgy). This course will focus on the e-beam systems and specifically QEMSCAN. The capabilities and advantages of the QEMSCAN, as well as the limitations, will be presented. A variety of case studies will be discussed, including samples from (i) economic deposits, (e.g. epithermal Au-Ag deposits in New Zealand, diamond-bearing kimberlite deposits in South Africa, REE deposits in Chile, exotic-Cu deposits in Chile), (ii) the Los Andes central volcanic zone, (iii) meteorites, and (iv) soils, as well as other disciplines such as geometallurgy and archaeology. Practical exercises using real data will focus on the importance of selecting the correct analytical conditions that impact on the mineralogical classification and analytical time (for example, this includes (but is not limited too) X-ray beam excitation (kV and µA), detector active areas (mm2), pixel spacing (µm), and dwell time (ms), as well as data post processing (e.g. boundary phase processing) to obtain the highest quality results. This will incorporate using the QEMSCAN iMeasure and iDiscover software. Day 1 (January 22, 2018): – Morning session: Automated Mineralogy Introduction and Capabilities. Understanding the QEMSCAN Analytical Parameters and Results Outputs. – Afternoon session: Automated Mineralogy Applications: Case studies in Geosciences. Day 2 (January 23, 2018) – Morning session: QEMSCAN analysis: Introduction to the iMeasure/iDiscover software. – Afternoon session: Data Processing and Reporting: Interactive Practical Exercises.

Location

Genève

Information

Flyer and map

Places

25

Deadline for registration 19.01.2018
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