Optical emission spectrometer provides fast, reliable analysis of precious metals at trace levels in fire assay lead buttons
Thermo Electron introduces the ARL fire assay analyser, an optical emission spectrometer that provides fast, reliable analysis of precious metals at trace levels in fire assay lead buttons.
Based on the most advanced technologies of time resolved spectroscopy (TRS) and current controlled source (CCS), the instrument satisfies the most demanding analytical needs of the precious metals industry.
The result of 70 years experience and research in optical emission spectrometry solutions, the ARL fire assay analyser provides fast and reliable all-purpose analysis. Sample preparation is simple and analysis is typically completed within a minute.
Costs, including those associated with cupels, furnaces, chemicals, power consumption and the environment, are considerably reduced.
This new spectrometer achieves typical detection limits ranging from 0.004ppm for Silver (Ag), Palladium (Pd) and Rhodium (Rh) to 0.18ppm for Iridium (Ir).
This allows the characterisation of the precious metals present at trace levels in the lead button and in the raw original ore sample. There is no need for cupellation or types of analysis, such as gravimetric analysis, ICP/MS or ICP/OES.
The instrument further benefits from added long-term stability, with no intermediate drift correction observed at the same level as short-term reproducibility over a two-week period.
This makes the spectrometer highly productive and helps minimise costs associated with recalibration samples.
With a complete elemental analysis performed in 24 seconds per run, the ARL fire assay analyser enables sufficient throughput for the fully automated fire assay process and the fast analysis of arriving samples.
The ARL fire assay analyser can be automated with the ARL SMS-2000 system to ensure high throughput and reliability of the analyses. Furthermore, it can be integrated with the fast inline fire assay (Fifa) system from Innovative Met Products.
This sequential system automatically produces about 60 lead buttons per hour, with a typical turn-around time of 40 minutes or less per assay, from ore grinding to lead button.