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Mission: Chemical characterization of various geomaterials to support the uranium exploration programme.
Chemistry group of AMD is engaged in supporting its mineral exploration programme by providing chemical analytical data to various field and laboratory investigations.
Chemistry laboratories are located at Hyderabad and seven regional centres i.e. Northern Region, New Delhi; Southern Region, Bengaluru; Eastern Region, Jamshedpur; North Eastern Region, Shillong; Western Region, Jaipur; Central Region, Nagpur, and South Central Region, Cherlapally Hyderabad.
Different types of geological materials like rock, soil, borehole core and beneficiation products are analysed for major oxides and trace elements and hydrogeochemical samples are analysed for cations, anions and trace elements .Our laboratories have gained the expertise in chemical characterization of refractory minerals like monazite, xenotime, ilmenite, rutile, zircon, garnet, sillimanite, beryl, niobate, tantalate phases, geo-botanical samples, coal and fly ash samples for more than 70 elements from parts per billion(ppb) to percentage levels.Gold and platinum group elements are preconcentrated by Fire Assay technique and analysed by GF-AAS/ICP-OES.
The Chemistry laboratories are equipped with state of art analytical instruments like Pellet and Light Emitting Diode (LED) Fluorimeter, UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, Flame and Hydride generator -Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (F/HG-AAS), Microwave assisted digestion system (MDS), Graphite Furnace-Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (GF-AAS) and Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometer (ICP–OES). In addition, HQ laboratory is also equipped with High Resolution-Continuum Source-Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (HR-CS-AAS) and Fire assay technique for Gold and Platinum group elements. The laboratories at Hqrs., Hyderabad and Jaipur are having Ion chromatograph and at Bengaluru and Jaipur are equipped with Carbon-Sulphur (C-S) Analyser. In addition, Class 10,000 clean room is also available at Hqrs., Hyderabad for analysis at ultra- trace.
Two mobile geochemical laboratories are deployed in field areas for hydrogeochemical survey at Western Region, Jaipur and South-Central Region, Cherlapally, Hyderabad. Mobile geochemical laboratories are equipped with LED-Fluorimeter, UV-VIS Spectrophotometer, Flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer, pH and conductivity meter for on-site analysis of hydrogeochemical analysis.
The Chemistry Laboratory at Hqrs., is accredited by National Board for Accreditation of Testing Calibration Laboratories (NABL) in the field of Chemical Testing for chemical characterization of monazite, Nb-Ta minerals, rare earth elements and uranium in rocks as per ISO 17025:2017, (Certificate No. TC-7163).
The Chemistry laboratory, Bengaluru is also accredited by NABL for Chemical testing of Lithium minerals (Certificate no. TC 11308 dated 18.01.2023).
In order to face these analytical challenges, it is imperative to develop newer and better methods of analysis.
Based on the R&D work carried out by the chemistry group over more than five decades, a large number of research papers have been published in National/International Journals. The need-based research & development works from the laboratories have resulted in developing new methods as well as improving the existing methods of analysis.
AMD received a patent (Patent No. 420937) through Chemistry group for an invention entitled “A filter with developed sorbent composite material for removing toxic metal contaminants from aqueous systems” in accordance with the provisions of the Patents Act, 1970.
Arsenic Removal Filter for Domestic Water Purification (WT19AMD): Arsenic is classified as group 1 human carcinogenic substance by WHO. It was estimated that above 200 million people worldwide are exposed to arsenic contamination of drinking water. Ground water arsenic contamination is worst in eastern part of the country especially in West Bengal.The technology is simple and can be adopted to house hold use or community use and benefit from the gravity fed filtration and suitable for remote areas where electricity may not be available.
As a part of Aatma Nirbhar Bharath, Chemistry Group, AMD and NCCCM, BARC jointly developed and released a Certified Reference Material (CRM) of Dolomite-BARC B1101 on 23.11.2021.
Reference materials for uranium ore, niobate and tantalate are scarcely available in the market and are not supplied by foreign countries due to import restrictions. In order to address the issue of non availability and as part of make in India initiative, Chemistry Group of AMD initiated a reference material development programme for these materials. As part of this, four reference materials were developed along with the certificate of analysis for Uranium ore (UO-1), Quartz Biotite schist (QBS-1), Niobate (NBT-1) and Tantalate (TAT-1) and the same were released by Director AMD on 12th June, 2023 for day to day analysis.
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