Innovations in Analytical Chemistry-The Key to Metallurgical Advancement

摘要

Innovation is the development of new solutions to meet the demands of the times. In the mining industry innovations have been driven by government regulatory changes, economic influences and the demand for metallurgical process improvement. Analytical chemistry is the force behind metallurgical advancement and discovery. Measurement is the key to understanding what you have achieved. The analysis of metals was among the earliest applications of analytical chemistry. While fire assay for analysis of precious metals has changed very little in the past 500 years, the majority of analytical equipment in the laboratory has changed dramatically in the past 60 years. As a result assays and analyses which took days to complete, changed to hours, hours improved to minutes, and minutes to seconds in some cases. These improvements came through the discovery and optimization of electronic instrumentation; particularly flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer, Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer, X-Ray Fluorescence and quick combustion gas analyzers.