Bauxite in Southern Italy by QEMSCAN®

Researchers at the University of Napoli, Italy (Prof. Maria Boni, Giuseppina Balassone, & Nicola Mondillo), teamed up with Dr Gavyn Rollinson at the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, UK, to examine bauxites from Southern Italy using QEMSCAN®. Initial results were presented at the 11th Biennial Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits (SGA) Meeting held in Antofagasta, Chile, September 26-29 2011, followed up by a publication in ‘Periodico di Mineralogia’. The textural (maps) and modal data, combined with the trace mineralogy that QEMSCAN was able to offer, added an extra dimension of evidence to the study that had already used EPMA, XRD, SEM and optical microscopy techniques. Further work may be carried out to explore the issue of bauxites using QEMSCAN.

QEMSCAN® Fieldscan Image (10 mircon x-ray resolution) showing both the ooliths and matrix of a bauxite sample from Southern Italy. Field of view is 8 mm approx. It was possible to detail the variation of mineralogy in the concentric oolith rings as well as subtle differences in matrix mineralogy

References

Mondillo, N., Balassone, G., Boni, M. & Rollinson, G. 2011. Karst bauxites in the Campania Apennines (southern Italy): a new approach. Periodico di Mineralogia. 80(3).
Balassone, G., Boni, M., Mondillo, N. & Rollinson, G. 2011. Bauxite in Southern Italy: a new approach. SGA, Antofagasta, Chile. September 26th – 29th, 2011.

Environmental Mineralogy: QEMSCAN® image display

The University of Exeter, UK, has announced that it will be producing a large version of the Hayle Estuary contaminated mine waste QEMSCAN® image (produced during research at the Camborne School of Mines), to be displayed in the Library on the main campus from next spring. The image was judged with many other entries and was successfully chosen as a handful of exciting images representing research carried out at the University.