- THE REDPATH WAY SINCE 1962 .
SAMPLING , ANALYSIS
delineating certain yellow metal deposits . This is on top of the ore sorting and acid rock drainage solutions previously spoken of that could propel the company further downstream of the exploration stage .
“ Our story is one about bringing people and machines together for positive decision support in the field ,” Giroud said . “ With units out across Australia and South America , we are a lot closer to achieving our goals and showing just how important our technology play could be for the mining industry .”
A new generation of assaying
Auranen ’ s argument about factoring in the accuracy of the sampling process , as well as the accuracy of the sample analysis , is top of mind for Chrysos Corporation .
The Australia-based company continues to shake-up the minerals analysis sector with its PhotonAssay™ technology .
Billed as slashing the time it takes to analyse a sample from days to hours using high-power X-rays to activate and measure gold atoms in mineral samples , PhotonAssay is in direct competition with fire assay for gold analysis .
Chrysos ’ PhotonAssay tech has gained significant market traction over the last half decade , gaining access to both the major commercial laboratories serving the mining sector , as well as some of the biggest gold mining companies with captive labs .
Dirk Treasure , Managing Director and CEO of Chrysos , has always been able to highlight the technology ’ s safety , speed and environmentally-friendly characteristics for gold analysis , yet , thanks to his team ’ s wider industry analysis , he can now add increased accuracy to this list of benefits .
“ In assaying , you have two contributing factors to consider in your overall total measurement error analysis : the analytical error associated with the analysis technique and the error associated with the sampling process itself ,” he told IM . “ Initial indicators suggested that fire assay was more accurate than PhotonAssay in reading gold grades below 0.3 g / t , and we were more accurate above 0.3 g / t because of the analytical methods used . However , feedback and analysis from real-world operations is now showing that the equation has changed in our favour when accounting for the associated sampling error as well .”
The sample size used for PhotonAssay tends to be at least 10 times larger than the mass of a fire assay sample , according to Treasure , positively impacting the representativeness of that sample in relation to the orebody when compared with fire assaying ’ s much smaller sample size .
“ Add this to the statistics around our already high accuracy analytical technique , and it means PhotonAssay is achieving a lower total measurement error compared with fire assay across the whole range of useful analytical grades in gold analysis ,” he said .
With added speed and availability benefits – the latter of which is up above 95 % from the PhotonAssay units out in the field – it is no surprise more PhotonAssay units are being deployed across the globe .
Demand is only likely to grow from here on , with a PhotonAssay Max Generation 2 unit now on the cards .
This next-generation unit will be able to run more samples than the first commercial platform , is even more robust ( requiring less on-site maintenance ), and comes with a smaller and lighter weight footprint for easier shipping and installation .
Further upstream analysis – such as analysis of raw RC chips and analysis of blast hole samples – could also become part and parcel of this new generation unit ’ s capabilities .
Treasure said the development of this new unit has been influenced by the learnings made on the PhotonAssay ATOM prototype .
Acting as a test bed for Chrysos , the ATOM has factors like mass , fill and recycling of reference materials all internalised , with much of its development predicated on the idea of PhotonAssay being deployed in the
SAFE
, DEPENDABLE , PROFESSIONAL
- THE REDPATH WAY SINCE 1962 .
Mine Development Shaft Sinking Mass Excavation Production Mining Raiseboring Raise Mining Underground Construction Mechanical Excavation Engineering & Technical Services Specialty Services
AFRICA | ASIA | AUSTRALIA | EUROPE NORTH AMERICA | SOUTH AMERICA
redpathmining . com