Exploring Heavy Minerals

ODM treats every sample with extra care:

• Incoming samples are immediately catalogued and organized. A character subsample is archived from every sample.

• In every circuit, the sample processing sequence and operator is recorded.

• The quality of the mineral separation is visible at every concentration stage (shaking table, heavy liquid, magnetic, electromagnetic) as well as during final indicator mineral logging; no blind (enclosed) concentrators are used.

• All shaking tables are customized to eliminate indicator mineral carryover.

• Blank samples are inserted and processed between projects.

• Gold grains are observed immediately in the initial tabling circuit and extra blank samples are inserted after anomalous samples.

• Sieves are meticulously cleaned after each concentrate.

• All sample fractions and subfractions obtained during processing are weighed and tallied to identify potential sample mix-ups. Any unrecon­cilable weight imbalances are assessed and immediately reported to the client in writing.

• Regular heavy mineral recovery tests are conducted on all shaking tables.

• Kimberlite indicator mineral results are controlled by random blind tests on spiked samples with full disclosure of test procedures and results.

• Unusual mineral grains or other suspect particles observed during gold micropanning or indicator mineral logging are immediately resolved by SEM analysis.

• Indicator minerals are meticulously organized by species and grain size in separate vials.