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WMMI Speakers’ Bureau Lecture with Daniel Kile
Date: June 12, 2018
Location: Western Museum of Mining & Industry, 225 North Gate Blvd., Colorado Springs, CO 80921
Time: 7:00 PM
Cost: $5
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Contact Name: WMMI
Phone: 7194880880
Description: Introduction to Ore Microscopy Ever since ore minerals have been mined, there has been a need to identify them and discern their chemistry and associations. This information is essential to the mining industry to assess the value of the ore, and to determine the most efficient means of concentrating the mineral of economic interest. This lecture will highlight some of the important observations and corresponding properties that can be evaluated with an ore microscope, and give an overview of the basic equipment required to do so. The reflected light/ore microscope used for ore microscopy was developed in the 1920s. In contrast to a transmitted light microscope that is used to examine rock thin sections, an ore microscope utilizes vertically incident light to examine the metallic, opaque minerals that are of economic importance. Optical properties of reflectance, bireflectance, and anisotropism, as well as physical properties of cleavage, twinning, internal reflections, and hardness, as can be observed in an ore microscope, will be summarized in this lecture, in addition to a discussion and demonstration of some of the required equipment. Despite the advent of X-ray diffraction and microbeam techniques to determine quantitative chemistry, the utility of the ore microscope has not been rendered obsolete. Interpretation of replacement and weathering processes, textures, and intergrowths can significantly affect the outcome of ore beneficiation – and only visual observation with polarized–reflected light can provide that information. This will be a one-to-two hour lecture, and will assume a basic knowledge of mineralogy.
Tuesday June 12th at 7:00pm (doors will open at 6:30pm) At the Western Museum of Mining & Industry Only $5 per person! Free to Museum Members. Please RSVP to 719-488-0880 or email rsvp@wmmi.org
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