X-Ray Diffraction Analysis Results of altered rock samples from Rambi gold target, Western Kenya

The method was undertaken on altered minerals to identify different clay minerals and note the minerals resulting from hydrothermal activities. Clay minerals are characterized by their layered structure, which results in a series of basal reflections with evenly spaced d-spacings. The d-spacing, the distance between adjacent layers, is influenced by the type of clay mineral and the interlayer cations. The relative intensities of the basal reflections also vary among clay minerals, providing additional information for identification. The diffraction process is mainly used to identify the crystal structure of the sample by expanding the interlayer spacing (d-spacing) of clay minerals, making it easier to distinguish between different types of clay minerals. Additional techniques, such as ethylene glycol solvation (in an oven at 60°C for 12 hours) and heating at 550°C (for two hours in the furnace oven) treatments are applied to differentiate further particular clay minerals that have similar d-spacings in their untreated state.
The X-ray Diffractometer analysis is used to identify individual minerals present in rock or soil samples including clays and pyrite.