Tuesday 13 December 2011

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.

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