A method for determining the collecting manganese nodules content present in an economically interesting metals

摘要

Presence of metals such as copper and nickel being economically interesting metals are determined as to existence thereof in the content of manganese nodules according to a method by means of analysis of the activation gamma spectrum of manganese nodule samples after a neutron irradiation thereon. The sample is irradiated with fast neutrons and from the resulting gamma spectrum the ratio of radiation intensities of two main component parts preferably manganese and iron is taken in order to determine the percentage metal content by way of empirically obtained geochemical correlation-data which reproduce the percentage parts of further elements dependent upon proportional ratio of two main elements of the manganese lumps.