Hyperspectral Imagery in Action: The School of Earth and Environmental Sciences of the University of St Andrews choose a TerraSpec Halo from Analytik

In a recent post entitled “The role of hyperspectral reflectance in mineral exploration”, Jonathan Cloutier, Lecturer in Economic Geology at the University of St Andrews, explored the use of hyperspectral technology and the reasoning behind his recent purchase of a TerraSpec Halo from Analytik.

The device is destined for research activities, Continuing Professional Development (CPD) workshops, and teaching of the School’s MSc in Mineral Resources.

In his post Jonathan notes, “The key advantage of the TerraSpec [Halo] is that it generates instant high-resolution mineral identification data on outcrop and drill core at relatively low cost per sample. This eliminates long wait times such as for geochemical assay results, greatly enhancing real-time decision making during exploration.”

Jonathan’s current research focuses on the White Pine sedimentary-hosted stratiform copper deposit in Michigan, USA, as well as the origin of Scottish orogenic gold deposits, and the Lemarchant VMS deposit in Newfoundland, Canada.

“At the SGA 2017 conference in Quebec City, I presented an example of my research on ..[ Lemarchant VMS deposit ]…in which I used hyperspectral reflectance to identify, quantify and chemically characterize specific mineral phases and from those, ascertain alteration processes (i.e. seawater alteration versus silicification), which is not possible using geochemistry alone.”

To find out more about Jonathan’s research visit https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~jc301/

Images used by kind permission of Jonathan Cloutier, University of St Andrews