Laboratory of Sedimentary Petrography and mineral separation

Keywords: minerals separation, magnetic separation, apatite, zircon, heavy liquids

Activities and strumentation available to the laboratory

The BiGeA Laboratory of Sedimentary Petrography and mineral separation is located in Piazza di Porta San Donato, 1 (Mineralogy Building).

A fundamental part of the Lab’s activities consist in the separation of various mineralogical phases from rock/sediment samples.

The processing - depending on the type of sample and mineral phase you want to achieve- is carried out through different phases, which involve the use of the following instruments:

• crushing (press)
• pulverizing (disk pulverizer)
• sieving (sieving columns and vibrating screen)
• magnetic separation (Frantz)
• hydrodynamic separation (Gemini shaking table)
• separation with heavy liquids

In the Laboratory chemical attacks and procedures leading to different analysis (e.g. apatite fission track/zircon fission track, other heavy mineral studies) are also performed.

Didactic, training and research activities

The laboratory offers its own resources to support:

• practice for Second cycle degrees;
• preparation of PhD theses;
• development of research projects.

Services and advices

 The Lab should be contacted for analysis and preparation of samples from external users.