ZIRCON SEPARATION BY GRAVIMETRIC, MAGNETIC AND ELECTROSTATIC TECHNIQUES AT THE METALLURGICAL LABORATORY

Geochronology of volcanic, intrusive and turbidity-sequence rocks of presumed Permian age emplaced at the Ouachita suture zone in Chihuahua, México, require a series of procedure steps for zircon separation.

Despite heavy liquids are widely regarded as an efficient process for mineral separation, they are expensive, often poisonous, viscous, limited to split-point densities and cancer-trigger.

Gravimetric and magnetic separators are used as an alternative to heavy liquid separation at the Metallurgical Laboratory of Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua. Additionally, electrostatic and petrographic techniques complement separation. Jaw crusher, grinding mill, sample splitter, sieving machine, shaking table, magnetic separator, electrostatic separator and polarizing microscope for final selection are instruments involved in zircon separation at UACh lab.

Larger samples are collected at the field, looking for sufficient amount of zircon mineral to get at least fifty crystals from igneous rocks and two hundred crystals from sedimentary units. Zircon samples are delivered in a 10 cm³ glass, each labeled with information such as sample #, grain-size, lithology, and location.