A few years ago I went to see one of the XRF contractors in West Perth. They were using an XRF mounted vertically in a frame to zap crush RC sample pulps still inside the brown paper sample bags. So in effect they were zapping the dust on the outside of the bag since attenuation and scatter through the paper would have told them next to nothing about what was inside. They weren't my samples, so I just smiled, nodded, backed away slowly, and decided SGS still had a lot going for them. Those results were reported to the ASX as "assay results".
So yep - how useful is an handheld XRF ? It zaps a minute part of the sample, generally with a high selection bias as being "the best looking part". Directors who don't know much about exploration like them - so MDs who are accountants, lawyers, metallurgists think they're great because you get "a number", but in reality I'd rather carry a bit more lunch and a couple of beers instead of an XRF.
BOA Price at posting:
32.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
