Chrysocolla is one of the most important copper minerals as it has one of the lowest operating cost extraction methods. It can easily be leached out via heap leaching or in situ leaching.

Chrysocolla has a distinctive spectra with major absorption features around 1900, 2230 and 2400 nanometers. It can be differentiated from other minerals found with it such as kaolinite and muscovite by concentrating on the feature around 2230nm. Malachite which is often found with chrysocolla has its major absorption feature at 2275nm. EZ-ID matches the target scan from the sample against three libraries of more than 1100 known minerals to provide an accurate match. Unmixing can be performed using the EZ-ID match regions and score tables to concentrate on the most important absorption features.

Benefits of using an oreXpress, oreXplorer or oreXpert with EZ-ID include:

• Quickly collect a lot of scans
• Cover more ground in less time for better mapping
• Collect more accurate data for a more complete picture of the area you are exploring
• Get results immediately instead of waiting for lab analysis
• Drill fewer holes with better results
• In the core shack, correctly identify promising samples, save on assay costs, and save your valuable logging data

These spectrometers deliver full range, UV/VIS/NIR capabilities from 350-2500nm, are lightweight (7 – 11 lbs), rugged, include integral autoexposure and auto-dark shutter, and come with a rugged handheld tablet with digital camera, GPS, and voice notes that can be tagged to your spectra. In addition, our DARWin Data Acquisition software saves your scans as ASCII files for use (without pre-processing) with third party software, including chemometric analysis software.

oreXpress field portable spectrometer for mineral identification

SPECTRAL EVOLUTION’S EZ-ID software with two spectral libraries of more than 1100 minerals was used to identify chrysocolla in a sample from a copper mine in Canada.