Niobium and tantalum, found in most modern day electronics, are extracted from columbite-tantalite ore known as 'coltan'. Mining of coltan in the Democratic Republic of the Congo helps fund the ongoing conflict in that region. The concept of geochemical fingerprinting is based upon the hypothesis that the chemical composition of a mineral directly reflects the geological environment of its place of formation. Analysis of LIBS plasma emission spectra using multivariate chemometric data processing techniques offers a means of rapidly distinguishing different geographic sources for a mineral in real-time. The determination of the provenance of central African conflict minerals has taken on increased urgency with the passage of federal legislation that requires U.S. companies to report the origin of their raw materials. Building on preliminary work, the results of this follow-on study involving a much larger sample set containing ore from diverse locations showed outstanding classification of samples by geographic origin.

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) for geochemical fingerprinting of columbite-tantalite sources

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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