MIWATCH visits Corescan and OREXPLORE laboratories in Western Australia

PhD Candidate Enrique Saez Salgado has been onsite visiting Corescan and OREXPLORE facilities in Western Australia as part of his studies. He has been participating in the scanning process of drill cores samples from a porphyry Cu-Mo deposit from northern Chile with hyperspectral mineralogical and computed tomography techniques.

The hyperspectral mineralogical analyses at Corescan Pty with the newest equipment developed by the laboratory, the Hyperspectral Core Imager 4.2 (HCI-4.2), delivers 2D image products for the minerals active in the VNIR-SWIR spectral range, making it possible to obtain high-resolution mineral maps and RGB photography of the drill core surface. On the other hand, OREXPLORE Technologies with his equipment, the GeoCore X10, has been delivering novel 3D imaging of drill cores using attenuation and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) combined measurement using X-rays, making an important upgrade in full drill core mineralogical techniques.

The results are expected to be used in the improvement of an automatized recognition and quantification of iron sulphides on the drill cores and their mineralogical characteristics, as well as their relationship with the surrounding mineralogy, with the finality to obtain acid rock drainage (ARD) potential indexes for the future mine wastes. The analyses are crucial for Enrique’s PhD research, focusing on determining the geoenvironmental properties of future non-ore materials and their capacity for greenhouse gas capture and secondary/critical commodities, necessary for reducing the CO2 footprint of mine sites and a transition to a greener economy.