X-Ray Mineral Services recently conducted comprehensive analytical work for the characterization of graphite varieties, impurities and provenance.
Our META workflow is a comprehensive materials characterization workflow. It consists of Minerals, Elements, Texture and Analysis. The META workflow deployed in this study incorporated XRD, FTIR, ICP and XRF techniques.
This workflow was deployed on samples from three different locations; Sri Lanka, Northern England and Tanzania.
Bulk mineralogy was conducted with the XRD method. Whole rock and clay fraction analysis were conducted, and quantification of mineralogy was completed using the Rietveld method with Autoquant software, with most minerals quantified within 2 wt.% absolute error.
XRD successfully determined the proportion of hexagonal and rhombohedral forms of graphite, their associated mineralogy and impurities from each location. The graphite content and bulk mineralogy could also be rapidly characterized using FTIR data.
ICP and XRF data were used to characterize the geochemical composition of each graphite type. Spider diagrams were used to highlight subtle variations in geochemistry that can be used to identify each graphite deposit and these impurities can be linked to provenance and paleo environment.
XMS has developed a robust graphite characterization workflow capable of grading graphite ores and defining fingerprints that can be used for the traceability of ores originating from different sources.
