Abstract
The ability to clean coal commercially depends upon the spatial distribution of the mineral matter within the organic coal matrix. The conventional method for defining the washability of a coal involves sink-float tests that are tedious, time-consuming and expensive. In this report, a procedure is described that employs X-radiography to assess the mineral distribution in exploration drill core samples. Mineral matter is more dense to X-ray penetration, and hence mineral particles are visible as areas of low transmission on an X-radiograph. The transmission characteristics of an X-radiograph can be digitized with high resolution, and thus the mineral distribution can be quantitatively defined. Appropriate computer manipulation of the digitized data can provide a measure of the mineral distribution and, hence, the washability characteristics of the coal. The theory, practice and experimental validation of the concept are described in this paper.
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