Patent ID: 7462819

Claim:
A method of analysing mineral samples, comprising the steps of: a) preparing a mineral sample for time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS); b) analysing said prepared mineral sample by time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) in an imaging mode to obtain a ToF-SIMS imaging data set in a region of interest, and corresponding mass spectrum at each pixel of the ToF-SIMS image; c) performing a principle component analysis (PCA) on the obtained ToF-SIMS imaging data set in which a first principal component represents a substantial majority of topographic and matrix effects in the imaging data set, and subsequent principal components represent chemical constituents in the sample; d) determining from the subsequent principal components the mineral or material phases; and e) analysing specific mineral or material phases (regions of interest (ROI)) in the original ToF-SIMS imaging data set) and determining specific chemistries of each phase.