Preparation equipment

Preparation equipment includes:

• Logitech LP50 lapping machine.
• Buehler beta with vector polishing head.
• Buehler metaserv with autopol polishing head.
• Logitech CS10 saw.
• Buehler petrothin cutter/grinder.
• Kulzer technomat pressure vessel.
• Buehler simplimet 1000 hot mounting press.

Mineral separation:

We offer the potential to separate minerals (e.g. apatite, olivine,  zircon) from crushed rocks based on their density and magnetic properties. The following procedures are suitable for rocks that have been crushed and sieved to <1mm in size.

• A Wilfley table which separates minerals according to their density and works well for grains that have been sieved between >250 and 1000microns. For finer fractions (<250 microns) a separate deck is available.
• Magnetic separation of minerals depends on the their magnet susceptibility. We use a Franz magnetic separator with variable slope and tilt at different currents to separate specific mineral fractions.
• We use a heavy liquid for the final separation. We combine the sample with LST Fastfloat/Sodium Polytungstate for separation based on the minerals density.