Media Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 27, 2005
Canadian Light Source Welcomes First Synchrotron Researcher
SASKATOON – An important milestone was achieved at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) this week as the national synchrotron facility welcomed its first researcher from an outside agency, Dr. Allen Pratt of Natural Resources Canada’s CANMET Mining and Mineral Sciences Laboratories in Ottawa.
Dr. Pratt is using x-rays from one of the synchrotron’s beamlines to study the minerals chalcopyrite and pyrite - commonly known as fool’s gold. He is investigating how to more effectively separate these two minerals and real gold from raw ore during processing.
“By tuning synchrotron light to certain energies we can build chemical profiles of the surface layers of a mineral and understand the chemistry and arrangement of metal atoms on the surface itself,” says Dr. Pratt. “Understanding this surface chemistry improves our ability to extract the desired mineral or metals from the ore. We can also better understand how to remove gold from raw ore through the development of leaching methods, which are much more environmentally sustainable towards extracting gold.”
Dr. Pratt was assigned time on the Variable Line Spacing Planar Grating Monochromator (VLS-PGM) beamline after he submitted a proposal to the CLS last fall.
“The Canadian Light Source is delighted to welcome Dr. Pratt and his study,” says CLS Executive Director William Thomlinson. “The arrival of our first external user is in many ways the culmination of the hard work of everyone here. Dr. Pratt is the first of a long line of researchers who will use the CLS to conduct scientific investigation to help better understand the world around us and benefit Canadians’ quality of life.”
Officially opened in October 2004, the national synchrotron facility at the University of Saskatchewan is one of Canada’s largest science projects in the last 30 years. Synchrotron light is used to determine the chemical nature and the molecular structure of materials, paving the way for new drugs, more powerful computer chips, better engine lubricants, more effective medical imaging, environmental monitoring and a host of other applications for science and industry.
The CANMET Mining and Mineral Sciences Laboratories (CANMET-MMSL) are federal government research laboratories within the CANMET Mineral Technology Branch of Natural Resources Canada. CANMET-MMSL provides quality research and sound scientific advice to the mining and minerals industries, and to provincial/territorial and federal government departments involved in promoting or regulating these industries. CANMET-MMSL conducts R&D on a wide range of processes and technologies involved in extracting ore from the ground and transforming it into a concentrate, mineral product or metal.
For more information contact:
Matthew Dalzell
Communications Coordinator
Canadian Light Source Inc
Ph: (306) 657-3739 Fax: (306) 657-3535
Cell: 227-0978
matthew.dalzell@lightsource.ca
Myrna Parker
Communications Officer
CANMET Mineral Technology Branch
Natural Resources Canada
Ph: (613) 992-1285
mlparker@nrcan-rncan.gc.ca
Last modified: 2012-01-19 17:01:42