Unprocessed geological samples can be screened to determine the elemental and mass distribution of the various size fractions. Alternatively, crush or grind products can be screened to ascertain the effectiveness of the pulverisation process.
Screening may also be used to determine if an analyse of interest is retained or hosted preferentially in one or more size fractions. This provides further information about the minerals contained in the sample. A common example of this is the screen fire assay technique for gold which will provide information as to the size and distribution of the gold particles present and by weighted average provide a more accurate measure of the gold present reducing the nugget effect.
Intertek Total Quality Assurance laboratory sites usually provide a number of screens of various mesh sizes to accommodate customers’ sample screening requirements.
