Technical Feasibility of a Borehole Probe for In-Situ X-Ray Diffraction Analysis

Abstract

The mining industry uses coring as a standard method for the evaluation of ore deposits. Since coring is costly and time-consuming, increasing attention has been given to logging techniques capable of providing information about the orebody, thus allowing replacement of at least part of a coring program. An evaluation of the feasibility and potential for application of a variety of borehole logging techniques(l) concluded that X-ray diffraction (XRD) is one of the promising techniques for borehole assay, along with neutron activation analysis, X-ray fluorescence, photoluminescence, and infrared spectroscopy.