Shooting slurries: Sampling is the name of the game

COREM is a research consortium dedicated to provide the mining and mineral beneficiation industry with practical solutions to process and quality control needs. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometry (LIBS) is viewed as a means of monitoring the chemical composition of process flow material, both on-line and in real-time, with minimal or no sample preparation. Upon applying the technology, though, to real- world situations, sampling is readily identified as a critical issue [1]. It is the purpose of this paper to report and discuss the problem of analyzing slurries with LIBS.