Kevin Young

Kevin has more than 20 years experience analysing and characterising alumino silicate minerals by X-ray techniques (and other instrumental and chemical methods) and has for the last ten years been responsible for the calibration of X-Ray instruments in Sibelco UK and more recently some of the European instruments conducting "low iron" (less than 100 ppm Fe2O3) analyses on Silivca based minerals for Sibelco Operating Units.

He will present the following paper:

Practical Aspects of the X-ray Characterisation of Silicate and Alumino-silicate Industrial Minerals

Chemical analysis by X-ray fluorescence of silicate and alumino-silicate minerals is challenging because of either the low levels of detection and high precision required for silica glass sands (quartz) or the complex matrix effects observed for ceramic-grade alumino-silicates (clays and feldspars). This presentation will focus mainly on the effects of instrument type, sample preparation and calibration (standards, CRMs, corrections).

A more detailed characterisation of alumino-silicates can be achieved by combining XRF and XRD analysis; some of the methods available for combining the information will be discussed through 'real-life' examples. For variety, some X-ray diffraction characterisation of quartz reference materials for RCS dust filter analysis calibration will be included