Rock and Mineral Preparation

 Rock specimens are cleaned, oven-dried and crushed to coarse sand size with a steel jaw crusher and/or roller mill. All grinding equipment (planetary ball mills, mortar grinders, spectro mills, vibratory disc mills) utilizes agate to minimize contamination. Sieves and sample splitters are also available. Mineral separation equipment include electromagnetic separators, wet shaking table for heavy minerals and facilities for heavy liquid separation and hand-picking under a stereo microscope.

Production of thin and polished sections is semi-automated and polishing is done by alumina and diamond to avoid surface contamination. The high demands on surface quality imposed by the high-resolution microbeam instruments (FEI-microprobe, SIMS) require hand-finishing of most polished sections and grain mounts.

Contact persons:
 

• Dr. Knut Hahne (rock preparation)
• Dr. Johannes Glodny (mineral separation)
• Gerhard Berger (sections and grain mounts)