Characterization of graphite bearing samples from the Northern Territory : Mineralogy and peak temperature assessment

Abstract

This study was commissioned by Geoscience Australia as part of the Resourcing Australia's Prosperity initiative to ground-truth the occurrence of graphite and to provide new data on the nature, distribution and thermal evolution of carbonaceous matter within core samples from four Northern Territory drill holes (MDD003, SMRD001, TCDD002 and LMDH8) through integrated mineralogical, petrographic and Raman spectroscopic analysis. The objectives of the work were to quantify the mineralogy of the selected samples, their graphite content and to infer the maximum temperature conditions experienced by the rocks. The analytical program included the following data acquisition:

Quantitative mineralogy via X-ray diffraction on bulk samples and < 2mm separated fraction

Imaging of petrographic thin section

Acquisition of Raman spectra from carbonaceous material dispersed in the rock samples

Deconvolution of the Raman spectra and estimation of peak temperature experienced by the selected rocks.