Evaluation of Refractory Metal Concentrations in Nano-Particulate Pressed-Powder Pellets Using LA-ICP-MS
Journal article, 2022

Whole-rock geochemical analysis is a standard method to measure the chemical composition of ores. Analysis of refractory ore metals such as Ta and W typically requires fused bead and acid digestion followed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES) and inductively coupled mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Since these techniques are time-consuming and expensive, there is a demand for methods that can quantitatively measure low elemental concentration of refractory ore metals using a less expensive and simple approach. This paper evaluates preparation and analytical procedures developed to obtain whole-rock element concentrations of ore samples and mineral concentrates. It shows that the production of nano-particulate pressed-powder pellets followed by LA-ICP-MS analysis of W and Ta ores can be used to determine, within the error margin, the concentrations of the refractory metals W, Ta, Nb, and Sn compared to a reference values obtained by solution analysis. The results have implications for developing a commercially viable method for analysis of refractory elements to benefit mineral processing given the simplicity and resource-efficiency of the combined pressed pellet production and laser ablation analytical methodology.

tantalum

refractory metals

tungsten

bulk sample analysis

nano-particulate pressed-powder tablets

LA-ICP-MS

trace elements

critical metals

Author

Lorena Guldris Leon

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science

Johanne Lebrun Thauront

Université Paris PSL

K. Johan Hogmalm

University of Gothenburg

Erik Hulthén

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Johan Malmqvist

Chalmers, Industrial and Materials Science, Product Development

Minerals

2075-163X (eISSN)

Vol. 12 7 869

Areas of Advance

Production

Subject Categories

Analytical Chemistry

Chemical Process Engineering

Environmental Sciences

DOI

10.3390/min12070869

More information

Latest update

9/26/2022