Can you measure mineralogy in a liquid slurry?

[DevonH]

Hi I was wondering if anybody knows of an instrument that can measure mineralogy in a liquid/solids slurry stream. I know an XRD can measure mineralogy, but it has to be a dried sample. Also XRF can measure a liquid/solid stream, but it only gives an elemental chemistry analysis, not mineralogy.

Basically our stream consists of solids (dolomite, anhydrite, clay salt, etc.) in a brine solution, and I would like an instrument that can measure how much dolomite, anhydrite, clay and salt is in the stream. Preferrably this instrument would be an online setup with automatic sampling directly from the stream, but if anybody knows of any instrument that would do this without automatic sampling etc., I would be interested in hearing about it.

Thanks for any help!

 

[StoneCold]

This may be way to simple but what if you measured the density of the stream. If this is a continuous process and the ratios of materials in solution is relatively stable then you should be able to back calculate the stream composition from the density reading.

Regards
StoneCold

 

[DevonH]

Thanks for the reply. The problem is that the process is not constant. For example, there would be more salt for example in the stream at one time and more clay in at another. So your density would constantly be changing, but you wouldn't know which component is changing it. We need precise accuracy in order to optimize the chemicals that are added for seperating the salt and clays etc.

 

[cawse001]

Outokumpu of Finland developed an on-line XRD for use in analysis of nickel sulphide slurries in a flotation circuit.

I am not sure if it is part of the Courier analyser range. Contact them about options.

One issue you may have is that all the minerals of interest contain lighter elements.

You could also try Thermo Electron Corporation.

Cheers,

NB

 

[DevonH]

Thanks for the reply. I tried contacting Outokumpu and they said that the instrument you are referring to (Courier C40) was somewhat successful for very simple mineralogy measurements, but it wasn't accurate enough for complicated mineralogy streams (including nickel). So basically they don't make this instrument anymore. But they also said that technology has come a long way since this time, and basically somebody just needs to spend the time/money to develop this slurry mineralogy instrument because it can be done. So if anybody knows if there is a company currently doing this, I would very much appreciate hearing about it.