Ultrafast Elemental Mapping of Platinum Group Elements and Mineral Identification in Platinum-Palladium Ore Using Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy

This paper demonstrates the capability of performing an ultrafast chemical mapping of drill cores collected from a platinum/palladium mine using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS). A scan of 40 mm × 30 mm was performed, using a commercial LIBS analyzer, onto the flat surface of a drill core with a scanning speed of 1000 Hz, and a spatial resolution of 50 µm, in about 8 min. Maps of the scanned areas for seven chemical elements (platinum, palladium, nickel, copper, iron, silicon, and magnesium), as well as a single map including the seven elements altogether, were then generated using the proprietary software integrated into the LIBS analyzer. Based on the latter image, seven minerals were identified using the principal component analysis (PCA) and correlations with the elemental maps.