Application of Mid-infrared Reflectance Spectroscopy for the Identification of Minerals Present in Oil & Gas/Mining Exploration

摘要

This work aims to develop a new core logging technique based on reflectance spectroscopy in the mid-infrared domain (2.08 to 25 μm). This technique is suitable to analyse the mineralogy of rough surfaces and will be adapted on a rock strength testing machine that scratches the core surface. The FT-IR spectrometer used in this work was tested on a list of minerals which are important in oil & gas and mining exploration. The list contains species of carbonates, halides, phosphates, sulphates, sulphides, tectosilicates and phyllosilicates. Then, a semi-automatic method was developed for mineral identification, mapping and quantification on the rough surfaces. It will be demonstrated that this process is powerful for the estimation of the mineral distribution at the exploration stage. Moreover, as it is non-destructive, low cost and quite fast, it will thus be helpful to extract additional data from the cores in a profitable way. This is critical to improve the resource efficiency, to reduce operational risks and to optimise the production in a sustainable way. These knowledges are the basis of the geometallurgical concept