XRD analyses: drillcore Northern Territory

Abstract

Eight drillhole samples from two locations in the Northern Territory, were submitted for XRD by Bellnda Smith, Northern Territory Geological Survey (NTGS). The objective of this study is mostly to determine the presence or absence of anhydrite and gypsum in samples from the Amadeus Basin in the Northern Territory and of spessartine or grossular garnet in samples from the Pine Creek areas in the Northern Territory.

The XRD results confirm abundant anhydrite, dolomite and trace gypsum and talc in most of the Undandita samples, despite some differences between the TIR and SWIR analyses. The FEN018 amphibolite samples show garnet in only two samples and XRD suggests it may be spessartine. The garnet TIR signal in the other samples is inexplicable.