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Miss Us at PDAC? Here’s the Latest for Our Mining Customers

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Mining and geochemistry

Our team recently returned from the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto, Canada. PDAC is one of the most popular mining shows of the year, and we love catching up with our customers and hearing directly from them about the state of the industry. This year there was a lot of optimism, which is always great to hear!

Our customers have been busy over the last year, and so have we! Check out some of the material we’ve been working on below.

What’s New for Mining and Geochemistry

Better Cobalt Analysis with Portable XRF

Despite the collapse of the price of cobalt over the past 12 months, there’s still great interest in using portable XRF to test exploration samples for it. To meet this demand, we developed a special calibration that overcomes the spectral overlap difficulties of measuring low-level cobalt in the presence of nickel and iron. Check out the presentation by Simon Bailey of Olympus Australia on the results of the new calibration.

Watch Now

Vanta Geochem Technical Tutorial Series

We recently finished filming a 9-part video series on the best practices of portable XRF for geochemistry applications. These videos are packed with helpful tips and tricks that our experts have learned over the years that help ensure all the data you generate is fit for purpose. The first 5 videos are live on our website and our YouTube channel. The final 4 videos will be released over the next few months, so keep an eye out! Each tutorial is short (about 5 minutes) and discusses important considerations when setting up a pXRF program.

Watch Now

Vanta M Series analyzer docked in a field stand and connected to a PC.

New Application Notes

Portable XRD for Graphite Exploration, Mining, and Extraction

Olympus portable X-ray diffractometers (pXRD) provide geologists and metallurgists with quantitative mineralogy in near real time, across all mineral species. This enables the exploration geologist to make more informed infield decisions. It also provides the metallurgist with the information needed to develop more effective blending strategies and yield better graphite recoveries.

Keep Reading

Portable X-Ray Fluorescence (pXRF) for Rapid Geochemical Mapping of Chromite Ores

We have recently published a case study completed at a chromite deposit in Russia demonstrating the effectiveness of using portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) for delineating platinoids and rare-earth elements (REEs). A detailed return on investment (ROI) analysis was conducted to calculate the value of using pXRF versus conventional laboratory methods.

Keep Reading

Meet the Team: Brendon

Brendon Johnson, Olympus Industrial Microscope Specialist (and Geologist) attended PDAC for the first time in 2019.

Q: How would you describe your first PDAC? How did it compare to your expectations?

A: PDAC was hyped up by the mining group as, by far, the largest and most important event each year. Thus, I was curious to see if the hype would meet expectations. In fact, PDAC did live up to the expectations! The size and focus of PDAC makes it different from the other mining tradeshows I have attended. PDAC really appears to be a juxtaposition of investors and mining and offers a great opportunity to interact with these two worlds.

Brendon Johnson

Brendon studied Geology at the University of Arizona and San Jose State University, graduating with a MS in Geology in 2013.

Q: What was the most interesting aspect of the event for you?

A: Folks often bring by interesting samples for me to image or issue a challenge to me to see if I can interpret a sample correctly. At PDAC, this tradition held true when a gentleman stopped by to see if our microscope could resolve the entire Hebrew Bible that was printed on a metal plate that measured <1 cm × <1 cm on his bracelet. It turns out that the text was printed on the metal piece with each character measuring about 3 microns in height! We sent the customer off with some images to share with his colleagues. Other than that, walking around the Core Shack and observing the rocks and core was very interesting.

A microscope image of a customer’s Hebrew Bible printed on a piece of metal.

A microscope image of a customer’s Hebrew Bible printed on a piece of metal.

Q: What were most visitors to the booth asking you about Olympus microscopes?

A: The most common question from customers was “How much does this microscope cost?” Other than that, folks were very curious about what the displayed samples were and their geological context and utility. The individual microscope components were generally not of much interest at a conference such as this, but the displayed images were very popular.

Q: Do you hope to be back next year?

A: Yes, I think that this show offers many opportunities for Olympus. The show is fast paced and exciting, and the mining group is a blast to worth with.

Contract Brendon to learn more about our geological microscopes.

Congratulations to the Winners of Our Binocular Giveaway!

  • Dino Forlin, Kitikmer
  • Allen Wyvrod, Ground Truth Exploration
  • Maasuren Davaasambuu, Mineral resources and Petroleum Authority of Mongolia (pictured right)

Maasuren Davaasambuu

Mining and Geochemistry Products Featured at PDAC

Vanta portable XRF for immediate, on-site elemental measurements

Vanta portable XRF for immediate, on-site elemental measurements

TERRA portable XRD for in-field mineralogy

TERRA® portable XRD for in-field mineralogy

BX53 microscope for high-quality images on geological samples

BX53 microscope for high-quality images on geological samples

We look forward to seeing you at next year’s PDAC event. Make sure to subscribe to the blog to get notified of our latest posts.

Related Content

The Power of pXRF for Cost-Effective Decisions for Mineral Exploration Programs

Identifying Rock Types and Mineralization with XRF at the Mount Pleasant Mine

Portable XRF Geological Logging with Vanta Analyzers


Get In Touch
Sales Engineer

Jennifer Caban is an Applications Specialist and Sales Engineer with Olympus Corporation of the Americas. She has over eight years’ experience working with X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction technologies in pre- and post-sales support functions. In her current role, Jennifer travels extensively throughout the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean, training the Olympus sales force, and working with customers in a wide range of industries. Jennifer holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Environmental Economics from Bates College. She is also fluent in Spanish and proficient in Portuguese. 

kwiecień 1, 2019
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