Patent ID: 9201029
Filing Date: 2015-12-01
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
1. A method for determining the ore content of drill cuttings, comprising: irradiating the drill cuttings with X-ray radiation and detecting fluorescence radiation and scattering radiation from the drill cuttings, the drill cuttings having been essentially immediately recovered from a drill hole and arranged as a layer, an upper surface of which is partly free from water, a solid phase of the layer partly transgressing an upper surface of a water phase of the layer, defining and irradiating a statistically sufficiently representative area of the layer, and measuring the fluorescence of the irradiation for element-characteristic intensities occurring in the ore, and for Compton-scattering and/or coherent scattering intensities, wherein the element-characteristic intensities are corrected using coefficients empirically derived from Compton-scattering and/or coherent scattering in order to compensate for damping due to a coverage effect of water.