The Adelaide XRF Laboratory

Research

The Adelaide XRF Laboratory has been involved in a number of research projects with Standards Australia, the International Standards Organisation (ISO), and the mining industry. Research projects are carried out on the basis of collaborative research or contract research. In addition, the XRF Laboratory carries out a significant amount of research work to support the CSIRO Land and Water research community and other CSIRO divisions. The following is a list of selected XRF research or XRF related research projects currently underway in the Adelaide Laboratory:

• Upgrade ISO 9516 to include analysis of Fe and trace elements Sn, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Pb, and Ba in iron ores.

• Develop a simplified version of ISO 9516 for routine in-house work.

• Develop a method for the analysis of Na and Cl in iron ores samples using fused bead.

• Develop thin-film XRF spectrometric methods for the analysis of environmentally important metals in industrial wastewater and natural waters.

• Coordinate an ISO sponsored international quality assurance program for the iron ore industry, in which participating laboratories are able to assess their in-house analyses against the mean of 40 other laboratories around the world.

• Assess Karl Fischer and gravimetric methods for determination of moisture content in iron ore with the aim to eliminate the bias between two methods and thus to improve the accuracy of iron ore analysis.