Technology from Europe:
France, Germany

Improved digital core scanner adds versatility

The Essen, Germany, based company, Deutsche Montan Technologie GmbH (DMT) recently introduced the second generation of its proprietary Corescan measurement system. The company said it was very pleased with the response from industry thus far, based on the response at March trade shows at the PDAC in Toronto and Geo 2006 in Bahrain.

The portable device provides drill core image acquisition, storage and evaluation of full-diameter and slabbed cores. Full-diameter cores are rotated 360° around their cylindrical axis, while the line-scan camera, positioned parallel to the axis of rotation, grabs their surface. A 360° image of up to 1-m long cores is recorded using the software provided with the unit. Full-diameter-cores are scanned at a rate of ~1¹/₂ min/m, and the image can be stored as BMP, TIF or JPG files.

A 360° image of up to 1-m long cores can be recorded with the portable core-imaging device.

The digital scans of drill cores are archived. This digital scan gives an exact picture of the substrates being studied. Rock faults, stratum structure, clefts and porosity are analyzed and depicted accurately with the system, says the company. Laser-guided, high-resolution camera with 40 pixels per millimeter provides in-depth insights into the geology of the cores.

Moreover, the portable system, together with integrated software, makes it possible to discriminate among the minerals present, differentiate grain size and conduct quantitative analyses, such as spectral and fracture analysis.

Exploration teams can use network technology to access the data from anywhere in the world. The previously scanned data can be arranged both spatially and chronologically. Individual images can be assembled to represent the entire length of the core sample.