| Title | Processing methods for recovery of indicator minerals from sediment and bedrock |
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| Author | McClenaghan, M B |
| Source | Exploration 07: Indicator mineral methods in mineral exploration, Workshop 3, course notes; by Thorleifson, L H; McClenaghan, M B; 2007 p. 15-19; 1 CD-ROM |
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| Year | 2007 |
| Alt Series | Earth Sciences Sector, Contribution Series 20070172 |
| Meeting | Exploration 07, Exploration in the new Millennium, 5th Decennial International Conference on Mineral Exploration; Toronto; CA; September 9, 2007 |
| Document | computer file |
| Lang. | English |
| Media | CD-ROM; digital |
| Related | This publication is contained in Exploration 07: Indicator
mineral methods in mineral exploration, Workshop 3, course notes |
| Subjects | economic geology; mineralogy; geochemistry; indicator elements; heavy minerals; heavy mineral analyses; mineral exploration; gold; nickel; copper; diamond; platinum; uranium; tungsten; sulphides;
specific gravities; grain size analyses; grain size analysis; analytical methods |
| Illustrations | photographs; tables; flow charts |
| Program | Targeted Geoscience Initiative (TGI-3), 2005-2010 |
| Released | 2007 01 01 |
| Abstract | The application of indicator mineral methods to mineral exploration has grown and developed significantly over the past two decades. They are used around the world to explore for a broad spectrum of
commodities. Heavy mineral suites now exist for detecting a variety of ore deposit types including diamond, gold, Ni-Cu, PGE, porphyry Cu, massive sulphide, uranium, and tungsten. Indicator minerals, including ore and accessory minerals, are usually
sparsely distributed in their host rocks. They may be sparser in derived sediments, thus sediment samples must be concentrated in order to recover and examine them. Most indicator minerals have a moderate to high specific gravity, thus most
processing techniques concentrate indicator minerals using some type of density separation, often in combination with sizing and/or magnetic separations. Samples are processed to reduce the volume of material that must be examined. In reducing the
volume of material, processing techniques must be able to retain the indicator mineral(s) and do so without contaminating the sample, without losing indicator minerals, and at a reasonable cost. This paper summarizes processing and heavy mineral
recovery techniques that are used to recover a wide variety of indicator minerals from sediment and bedrock samples. |
| GEOSCAN ID | 224141 |
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