SciAps, Inc., the leading provider of handheld analytical instruments, today announced it’s all new GeoChem Pro App for the Z-series handheld LIBS analyzers.
For more about the GeoChem Pro App, please visit the SciAps website
The Z performs in-field elemental analysis for virtually any group of elements in the Periodic Table. With the GeoChem Pro App, the instrument rasters a 50 µm diameter laser over a sample to perform in-field micro-analysis for elemental content – something never before available with a handheld analyzer.
The raster pattern can be overlayed with the sample image, allowing operators to aim the laser at specific regions of the sample to generate elemental data from veins, inclusions or other in-homogeneities present. The resulting data, including heat maps and elemental chemistry, allows geochemists to derive elemental ratios and deduce minerals present in a sample.
Video Demo of the GeoChem Pro App
The analyzer has on-board GPS, thus eliminating the need for a GPS device to determine spatial metadata relevant to the analytical data and potential human error with merging spatial and geochemical datasets. Operators may also analyze prepared bulk samples for elemental content as with other technologies.
The Z includes quantitative calibrations for a wide range of elements, including those that are difficult or impossible to measure with other field technologies. Examples include the low atomic number elements Li, Be, B, C, N and O, halogens including F, Cl and Br, and the transition, rare-earth and heavy metals.
SciAps manufactures their own patented spectrometer that offers compactness suitable for handheld analyzers, a wide wavelength range critical for the broadest elemental coverage, and high resolution. For the GeoChem Pro App, the range extends from 190 nm (to measure C) up to 930 nm (to measure S in the 921 nm region).
According to global mining business manager Andrew Somers:
“SciAps Z range of hand held LIBS analysers represents a major step change in field portable geochemical analysis. We can now identify not only what is in a sample but where it is in the sample allowing geologists to better understand subtle but important signals in mineral chemistry and alteration.
"After years of wishing, we have the capability to analyze Na that allows true whole rock geochemistry in the field. For the first time very light elements such as C, B, Be as well as elements such as F, N and HREE can be analyzed in the field which opens opportunities for in field geochemistry that simply never existed with conventional field portable technology.
"SciAps will demonstrate these capabilities at the Society for Economic Geology (SEG) conference in Hobart, Australia in late September 2015. We are extremely excited to present this new technology to a forum that has led the way in the field of microanalysis and demonstrating its value to economic geology.”
About SciAps
Founded in 2012, SciAps is an instrumentation company specializing in handheld instruments that are used to identify compounds, minerals, and elements, both on-site and in real-time. The company’s flagship product for the mining sector is the LIBZ Z – a family of handheld elemental analyzers using the spectroscopic technique known as laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS).
The company has sold nearly 100 analyzers into a variety of applications, with strong interest from the mineral exploration community. The interest from the mining sector is due to three advantages of the LIBZ technology compared to other handheld technologies: a) a wider elemental range, extending down to hydrogen in the Periodic Table of Elements, b) the 50 um rastered laser that allows in-field micro analysis for the first time ever, and c) there is no x-ray radiation, as the device is entirely laser-based.
SciAps is headquartered in Woburn, MA. Manufacturing, service and customer support are operated from the company’s fully ISO-certified facility in Laramie, WY. SciAps maintains worldwide sales and service alliances, with installation and training available globally.