Improving Copper Ore Geological Testing Based on Operational Control of its Quality by the X-Ray Radiometric Method

The quality control of ores during their extraction is performed by means of core testing. Due to the fact that the testing methods used at enterprises include operations of selection, delivery to the laboratory, processing, analysis of samples, they are labor-intensive, expensive and unsuitable as a means of obtaining information for operational impacts on the technological process. From this position, significant prospects are opened by the emergence of X-ray radiometric testing (hereinafter XRT), which allows for the transition to express determining the components of interest without testing, directly in the conditions of natural occurrence of rocks and ores. It makes it possible to reduce the duration of testing to several minutes or seconds, to reduce many times the cost of work while increasing the volume of information to the required completeness. The obtained results indicate the possibility of core testing by X-ray fluorescence of copper in crushed representative samples of the -1 mm class. More representative testing of the core itself (its round and flat surfaces of the sawn core) allows for the rapid separation of ore and rock intervals