METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE CLASSIFICATION OF PARTICULATE MATTER

摘要

Particles are classified according to the presence or absence in the particles of a particular substance. In one example, kimberlite particles (16) are analysed for the presence of diamond (36). In the method, each particle (16) is irradiated with a beam (20) of fast neutrons at a resonant energy level for the particular substance. For each particle an image is derived which is representative of transmission of the beam by the particle. The particles are then classified according to whether or not the derived image is indicative of the presence in the particle of the particular substance. The method can be enhanced by irradiating the particles with neutron beams at resonant and non-resonant energy levels, and a resultant image is derived from the transmission spectra at both energy levels. The classification is then made from an analysis of the resultant image.