Sinclair Caesium Mine | MicroXRF

Sinclair.

About Sinclair Caesium Mine

Sinclair Caesium Mine, is part of Pioneer's namesake Pioneer Dome Project. This is a multi commodity project located 130 kilometres south of Kalgoorlie.

Sinclair Caesium was discovered within the project area and was reported in 2016, with mining operations beginning two short years later.

This area has gone on to be the only commercial caesium mine in Australia, and only one of three in the world!

The focus of the Sinclair deposit was the Sinclair Pegmatite. The mine was completed January 2019.

Sinclair Caesium Deposit Process July 2018.

Pioneer Resources describe the Sinclair Pegmatite as being "classed as a complex Lithium-Caesium-Tantalum (LCT) pegmatite due to its mineral assemblage and degree of mineral fractionation, which is extreme. This has resulted in the formation of a suite of mono-mineralic phases that include pollucite (Cs) as well as petalite and lepidolite (Li), feldspar (K) and silica (Si)."

Use of Micro-XRF on Sinclair Caesium Mine Samples

Micro-XRF technology is being applied to the lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) pegmatites at the Sinclair Caesium Deposit, to evaluate the capability to accurately identify the mineralogy, textures and chemical zoning on a macro- and micro-scale throughout the deposit.

The preliminary results clearly demonstrate the use of the micro-XRF for the identification of textural features of visually indistinguishable minerals and the detection of chemical differences at a micro-scale.

The use of the Bruker M4 TORNADO has enabled specific questions about the deposit style to be answered in a cost-effective and time-efficient manner.

Dr Naomi Potter, Spectral Analyst at Portable Spectral Services presented at the Australasian Exploration Geoscience Conference 2019 (AEGC2019) in Perth.

Download it for free here.

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