Australian federal Innovation, Industry, Science and Research Minister Kim Carr announced on August 8 that the University of Western Australia (UWA) had doubled its capacity to help find new mineral ore deposits through funding for a new nano-secondary ion mass spectrometer (NanoSIMS) imaging and analysis facility.

The equipment is part of a new advanced resource charact- erisation facility (ARCF) in Perth, Australia, the Minister said. The ARCF will receive a grant of A$12.4-million from the country’s Science and Industry Endowment Fund (SIEF), and is being developed as part of the National Resource Sciences Precinct, a partnership between UWA, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) and Australia-based Curtin University, which aims to position Perth as a global centre for minerals and energy research.

The SIEF grant, made jointly to the collaborators, will support the installation of three new pieces of equipment, namely the NanoSIMS, to be located at UWA; a Maia Mapper, which produces high-definition, quantitative elemental images with microscopic or nanoscopic detail in real time, at the CSIRO; and a Geosciences Atom Probe, an atomic scale that produces three-dimensional imaging and measurements of chemical compositions at Curtin University.

UWA Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis (CMCA) acting director Peta Clode says the NanoSIMS works by bombarding samples with high-energy ion beams.

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These secondary ion mass spectrometry instruments measure near-surface chemistry and can differentiate isotopes of the same element, such as carbon-12 and carbon-13, that differ by only one neutron,” he notes.

“This new NanoSIMS is highly automated, which means it will be more productive for determining trace elements of ore deposits, such as gold in rock, which, in turn, means industry can mine more efficiently and achieve higher production yields.

“It will improve productivity for future mineral exploration as well as optimising production from known deposits,” Clode adds.

Between UWA, the CSIRO and Curtin, the National Resource Sciences Precinct already hosts more than 900 research staff and is supported by a research infrastructure of over A$700-million.

UWA’s CMCA operates over 45 instruments, valued at almost A$50-million. The instruments, as well as academic research and technical support and guidance, are made available to more than 400 users based in Perth, broader Australia and internationally. The two current ion mass spectrometry instruments currently available through the CMCA are used for research exploration in the mining and resource industry. The first NanoSIMS was installed in 2003 and a 1 280 ion probe was installed in 2009.

UWA is one of the only universities in the world that will have three high-quality ion mass spectrometry instruments working together, enabling researchers to compare similar and contrasting results with precise outcomes.

“UWA and the CMCA look forward to continuing to support researchers in delivering further cutting-edge instruments and technique developments to the Australian resources sector,” Clode concludes.