Mineralogical analysis

With time, however, the company encountered problems, including caving of the formation into the wellbore and the loss of permeability in zones that had accepted fluid. In June 1987, a number of sidewall cores were taken from the formation (Mehnert et al., 1990). Mineralogic analysis by x-ray diffraction showed that significant amounts of calcite (CaCCb) and brucite [Mg(OH)2], as well as some amorphous matter, had formed from the original dolomite. In some samples, the dolomite was completely consumed and the rock was found to be composed entirely of a mixture of brucite and calcite. 

Micro-scale characterization (p-XRF, p-XANES, p-XRD, petrography, and EPMA) was able to confirm As forms identified by bulk XRD and in all cases identify additional As forms. Grain-scale mineralogical analysis unambiguously identified a minimum of two and typically four or more As-bearing phases in each tailings sample (Fig. 2, Table 2). 

Multivariate Analysts of Electron Microprobe-Energy Dispersive X-ray Chemical Element Spectra for Quantitative Mineralogical Analysis of Oil Shales... 

Table I. Qualitative Mineralogical Analysis of Oil Shale by X-Ray Diffraction...

Si02 and AI2O3 are within the ASTM limits for those elements. Note that all these errors are better than the value of 4.8 resulting from the mineralogical analysis. (However, the mineral analysis was not optimized to predict ash elementals.)... 

Raman spectroscopy, while typically used as a micro-analytical tool, can be conducted remotely. Performance of remote Raman analysis have been recently explored and reahzed for experiments on the surface of Mars (Sharma et al. 2001 Sharma et al. 2003). Raman spectroscopy is a powerful technique for mineralogical analysis, where the sharpness of spectral features of minerals allows for much less ambiguous detection, especially in the presence of mixtures. Visible, near-infrared, thermal, reflectance and in many cases emission spectroscopy of minerals all suffer from broad overlapping spectral features, which complicates interpretation of their spectra. On the other hand, Raman spectra of minerals exhibit sharp and largely non-overlapping features that are much more easily identified and assigned to various mineral species. 

Mr. Campbell Elements present in the lithotypes were determined by ultimate analysis, emission spectroscopy, and x-ray fluorescence analysis. The presence of certain minerals was inferred from the determined elements. A direct mineralogical analysis was not undertaken. 

Voisin C, Fisekci F, Buclez B, et al. 1996. Mineralogical analysis of the respiratory tract in aluminum oxide-exposed workers. Eur Resp J 9 1874-1879. 

Kunze, G.W. (1965) Pretreatment for mineralogical analysis. In Methods of Soil Analysis (ed. Black C.A.). American Society of Agronomy, Madison, pp. 568-577. 

Rey F, Boutin C, Viallat JR, et al. 1994. Environmental asbestotic pleural plaques in northeast Corsica Correlations with airborne and pleural mineralogic analysis. Environ Health Perspect Suppl 102 251-252. 

Ward C. R., Bocking M., and Ruan C.-D. (2001) Mineralogical analysis of coals as an aid to seam correlation in the Gloucester Basin, New South Wales, Austraha. Int. J. Coal Geol. 47, 31-49. 

Pseudomorphs on a bronze Shang Dynasty halberd (ca. 1300 b.c.) were subjected to mineralogical analysis to determine their structure and composition. X-Ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive analysis of x-rays were used in these analyses. Photomicrographs of pseudomorphs also were studied for fiber, yam, and fabric formations that give evidence of textiles. A model describing the process of silk pseudomorph formation was proposed. 

Micrographic and mineralogical analysis of both sides of the halberd revealed green and black pseudomorphs on one side of the blade and green and black nodular formations on the reverse side. Both green materials contain malachite with some aluminum oxide or hydroxide impurity. Both black materials contain tenorite plus some oxide or hydroxide of aluminum and perhaps some malachite. 

Dang M-Z, Ranconrt DG, Lamarche G, Evans ME (1999) Mineralogical analysis of a loess/paleosol couplet from the Chinese loess plateau. In Kodama H, Mermut AR, Torrance JK (eds) Clays for Onr Future. Proc llthIntT Clay Conf, Ottawa, Canada, p 309-315 de Biasi RS, Devezas TC (1978) Anisotropy field of small magnetic particles as measured by resonance. J Appl Phys 49 2466-2469... 

Size fractionation is a very important preparatory step in mineralogical analysis and it is essential to know the particle size characteristics of material being analysed if results are to be reproducible. Preparation for most samples therefore begins with disaggregation and/or grinding. However, it must be emphasised that clay minerals can be easily damaged by mechanical treatment and it should be kept to a minimum. Samples may be mixed with a volatile inert organic liquid (e.g. isopropyl alcohol) prior to... 

This chapter has presented detailed information on the more common analytical instrumentation and preparation procedures used in chemical and mineralogical analysis, and an overview of selected microanalytical techniques that still require development in this field. It must be emphasised that the quality of results and the information that can be obtained... 

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